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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody.

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Speaker 1: Hope all you guys are having a great week so far.

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Speaker 1: We are live on AMPS. If you're watching on YouTube,

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Speaker 1: is the very first place that you guys can get

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Speaker 1: these shows. Continuing our Power rankings today with number seven

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Speaker 1: The Losers, the Damian Lillard Trade Saga, the Miami Heat,

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Speaker 1: got a season preview for them, and then I've got

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Speaker 1: three mail back questions for the end of the show

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Speaker 1: as well. You guys are the drill. Before we get started,

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Speaker 1: subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter, Underscore

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Speaker 1: so we can keep hitting them at the end of

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Speaker 1: the shows. Also last minu at least before we get started.

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Speaker 1: tickets lowess price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball.

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Speaker 1: So the Miami Heat they lost a lot of players. Actually,

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Speaker 1: Eudonis Haslim retired finally. Victor Oladipo obviously was injured at

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Speaker 1: the end of last year, but he's gone now to

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Speaker 1: Max Struskay Vincent elsewhere, Omer your seven, and Cody Zeller

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Speaker 1: as well elsewhere. They added Josh Richardson a good replacement

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Speaker 1: at guard. He's an excellent point of attack defender. I

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Speaker 1: was going back the other day when we were covering

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Speaker 1: the Thunder and I was watching that Pelicans Thunder game,

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Speaker 1: and really the one time they got SGA kind of

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Speaker 1: sort of under control was when Josh Richardson was on it.

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Speaker 1: He's just a pass to. He can navigate screens well.

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Speaker 1: He's good with bal denial as well. Just a good

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Speaker 1: defensive guard. He also shot the ball pretty well last

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Speaker 1: year with the Pelicans, and he has him off the

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Speaker 1: dribble pop view. Heat fans already know him pretty well,

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Speaker 1: but this will be a better example this time around

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Speaker 1: of getting him to see what it's like working with

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Speaker 1: this version of bam Adebayo and the excellent jubil handoff

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Speaker 1: fulcrum that he's become. Thomas Bryant the backup center for

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Speaker 1: the Lakers and Nuggets last year. I covered him pretty

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Speaker 1: closely when he was with the Lakers. Very gifted offensively,

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Speaker 1: he catches and finishes well around the rim. He's super

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Speaker 1: active on the glass. He's gonna sprint up and down

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Speaker 1: the floor and transition every single time. And he can

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Speaker 1: shoot the ball pretty well like a legitimate pick and

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Speaker 1: pop through at As a matter of fact, he converted

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Speaker 1: rollman possessions at one point three to five points per

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Speaker 1: possession when he was with the Lakers, which is really

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Speaker 1: really good. But he struggles to guard and pick and

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Speaker 1: roll and he offers no rim protection. So he's fine

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Speaker 1: regular season player, but you probably don't want him in

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Speaker 1: your playoff rotation, and Denver did not use him. That said,

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Speaker 1: Eric Spolser has a gift for We're going to talk

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Speaker 1: about this more later, but he has a gift for

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Speaker 1: finding defensive roles that players can thrive in, even limited

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Speaker 1: defensive players. So I am curious to see what Eric

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Speaker 1: Spolster can do with him. They also brought over Schek Tialo,

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Speaker 1: who played in Japan last year. He'll be competing for

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Speaker 1: a spot in camp. RJ. Hampton a backup guard for

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Speaker 1: the Pistons. Jimi hack has Junior. I covered him in

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Speaker 1: summer League. Really versatile wing that I actually really like,

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Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna be a good pro right away.

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Speaker 1: Just a good basketball player does a bunch of little things. Well.

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Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be a perfect fit with the Heat.

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Speaker 1: And then Cole Swider, I covered him with the Lakers

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Speaker 1: last year. Really can shoot it, but struggles to do

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Speaker 1: everything else, which again I can think of no better

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Speaker 1: place than the Heat to try to figure out if

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Speaker 1: there's something else there. So the depth chart as of

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Speaker 1: right now at guard Kyle Lowry, Tyler Harrow, Josh Richardson,

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Speaker 1: Caleb Martin, and RJ. Hampton. At Ford Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson,

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Speaker 1: Himeh hake As, Junior, Nikola Yovitch, who we're gonna talk

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Speaker 1: a lot about today, and Heywood high Smith and then

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Speaker 1: the bigs bam Adebayo, Thomas Bryant, Orlando Robinson and Shakyallo

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Speaker 1: the Dame Trait. So the Blazers obviously yesterday were able

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Speaker 1: to turn Damian Lillard into Drew Holliday DeAndre and draft compensations.

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Speaker 1: So the Athletic had a big report that came out

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Speaker 1: this morning that basically broke down the path way that

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Speaker 1: led to Dame ending up in Milwaukee, and it was

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Speaker 1: pretty informative about just how little of a chance Miami

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Speaker 1: actually had. I know there were a lot of Heat

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Speaker 1: fans that are frustrated with pat Riley, and I get it.

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Speaker 1: It's not even so much Dame as it is the

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Speaker 1: bigger picture. Like you missed out on Dame, you missed

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Speaker 1: out on Bradley beal right, Like it's just it's been

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Speaker 1: kind of a steady you missed out on Donovan Mitchell,

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Speaker 1: Like it's been a steady train of players that you know,

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Speaker 1: the Heat could have jumped on but couldn't figure out.

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Speaker 1: But the reality is is they don't really have that

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Speaker 1: grade of a situation to make a star trade. Like

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Speaker 1: many contenders, They can't afford to give away one of

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Speaker 1: their core pieces in that deal, right, Like you can't

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Speaker 1: give up Jimmy Butler, BAM and a Bio in the

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Speaker 1: deal because then you lose your championship ceiling anyway, right,

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Speaker 1: And those are really the only two core pieces, right,

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Speaker 1: But they don't really have a young player of the

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Speaker 1: league once, Like Tyler Harrow is a good player, but

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Speaker 1: he's already on an expensive deal and a lot of

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Speaker 1: front offices don't think he's that good. Like he's kind

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Speaker 1: of a polarizing player. Nikole Jovitch. Really interesting young player,

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Speaker 1: but not exactly a needle mover. Right. And here's the thing,

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Speaker 1: Like Miami draft picks are some of the least valuable

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Speaker 1: in the league because they're a great organization that rarely

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Speaker 1: loses basketball games. I was pulling this up earlier. Since

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Speaker 1: two thousand and four, the Heat have the fourth most

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Speaker 1: regular season wins in the entire NBA. A little trivia

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Speaker 1: for you guys, Who do you think are the three

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Speaker 1: teams that were ahead of the Heat since two thousand

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Speaker 1: and four, So that's starting with the two thousand and three,

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Speaker 1: two thousand and four season, call it since Lebron came

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Speaker 1: into the league. Which teams do you think have the

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Speaker 1: most regular season wins? Spurs pretty obvious one, right, Mavericks

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Speaker 1: a third one. I don't think you guys are gonna

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Speaker 1: get but we'll see if you get it. Tell me

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Speaker 1: in the comments. The Denver Nuggets, or third on that list.

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Speaker 1: They also, the Miami Heat have one hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: two playoff wins since two thousand and four, which is

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Speaker 1: nineteen more than any other team in the NBA, So

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Speaker 1: they're the winningest playoff team over the last two decades

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Speaker 1: and they're the fourth winningest regular season team. So the

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Speaker 1: draft picks aren't worth all that much. I would imagine

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Speaker 1: that port And looks at Milwaukee's draft picks as a

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Speaker 1: much higher chance of being higher value. Right. So the

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Speaker 1: reality is is like it's easy for us in our

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Speaker 1: chairs to be like, hey, why didn't they make a

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Speaker 1: move on this guy, Why didn't they make a move

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Speaker 1: on that guy? And we really don't know what's happening

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Speaker 1: behind the scenes. And the truth is is that Miami's

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Speaker 1: not really in a position where they can easily beat

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Speaker 1: out other teams in a bidding war. But we even

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Speaker 1: found out from that Athletic report today that they didn't

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Speaker 1: really have much of a chance to begin with. So

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Speaker 1: the Athletic reported that Dame went to the front office

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Speaker 1: and requested a trade and said he wanted to go

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Speaker 1: to Miami. And when Portland called Miami, they asked for

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler or bam Adebio in the deal, according to

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Speaker 1: this report from the Athletic, Like, that's just not serious, right,

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Speaker 1: And then the Athletic also reported that it was pretty

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Speaker 1: damn contentious between the two sides, So you know, Dame

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Speaker 1: basically is known for a couple of weeks that Miami

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Speaker 1: was off the table, and at that point then he

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Speaker 1: started using his agent behind the scenes to push for

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Speaker 1: either Brooklyn or Milwaukee, and Milwaukee is what ended up materializing.

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Speaker 1: So it's like, maybe maybe pat Riley could have thrown

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Speaker 1: all of the assets on the table and gotten the

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Speaker 1: deal done. But the truth is we don't know, and

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Speaker 1: I don't think that that's necessarily fair criticism, especially now

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Speaker 1: that we know the details behind the scene. I was

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Speaker 1: under the impression that Portland wanted to send him where

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Speaker 1: he wanted to go, but was more interested in just

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Speaker 1: kind of like trying to leverage Miami into giving up

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Speaker 1: a little bit more. Judging from this report from the Athletic,

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Speaker 1: it looks like Portland had really no interest in sending

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Speaker 1: him to Miami to begin with. So I don't want

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Speaker 1: to be too critical of pat Riley in this instance.

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Speaker 1: The reality is though, is that the Heat need to

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Speaker 1: do something. And I wrote down four reasons why. There

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Speaker 1: are four reasons why I think the Heat have to

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Speaker 1: get aggressive in some way, shape or form before the

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Speaker 1: deadline at least if not in the next couple of days.

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Speaker 1: So One, the Jimmy Butler bam Ata Bio combination is

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Speaker 1: easily one of the best playoff combinations in the NBA,

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Speaker 1: and they've proven that, like they've literally been to the

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Speaker 1: conference finals three of the last four years, and they've

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Speaker 1: won the conference twice. Again, this is the conference that

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Speaker 1: when you think of you think of Jason Tatum, you

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Speaker 1: think of Joe Elmbid, you think of Gianni Santanakompo, and

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Speaker 1: yet Jimmy and bam have won the conference two of

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Speaker 1: the last four years and made it to the conference

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Speaker 1: finals three the last four years. So that is a

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Speaker 1: combination that has proven to be devastating in the NBA playoffs. Two,

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler just turned thirty four years old, so there's

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Speaker 1: real urgency to try to get something done in this

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Speaker 1: season or in the following season. Three. Eric Spolstra is

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Speaker 1: the very best coach in the NBA. In my opinion,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna talk more about that later. That's a real

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Speaker 1: weapon here, right, And then number four. Consistently, the success

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Speaker 1: that we've seen the Heat have in the playoffs has

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Speaker 1: been because of their top tier talent and because of

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Speaker 1: Eric Spolstra, and often they've been overcoming or operating with

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Speaker 1: a significant talent disadvantage. It's been a firepower issue. So

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Speaker 1: it's a reasonable assumption to think that the Heat are

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Speaker 1: like one legitimate shot creator away from having a real

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Speaker 1: chance to win the title. Not like make the finals

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Speaker 1: and have a couple of scratch he wins against a

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Speaker 1: team that pounds you into oblivion and wins the series,

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Speaker 1: but like actually win the damn thing. I really do

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Speaker 1: think they're potentially one move away, and so I'd like

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Speaker 1: to see them be more aggressive. So the question is

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Speaker 1: is what specifically do they need now? As we know,

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Speaker 1: one of Eric Spolster's specific gifts, like that we talked

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Speaker 1: about with Thomas Bryant and we're going to talk about

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Speaker 1: here in a little bit as well, is his ability

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Speaker 1: to craft defensive roles in schemes that actually work for

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Speaker 1: personnel that have limitations. Right, Like, each year he kind

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Speaker 1: of just finds a scheme that works for that unit.

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Speaker 1: He picks each player and identifies what they're capable of

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Speaker 1: actually doing well and finds a role for that within

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Speaker 1: his scheme. Right, So, like, I don't think you need

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Speaker 1: to go after some dude who's like a devastating two

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Speaker 1: way player necessarily, and I would be open to players

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Speaker 1: that have defensive flaws. I think they need a guard.

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Speaker 1: I think they need a guard that can consistently generate

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Speaker 1: high quality shots in the half court against elite playoff defenses,

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Speaker 1: at least a fringe all All Star level player, maybe

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Speaker 1: not a guy who makes the All Star team, but

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Speaker 1: a guy that you think of as like an All

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Speaker 1: Star caliber type of player. Right, So, guys that keep

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Speaker 1: an eye on Drew Holliday obviously, although the contentiousness between

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Speaker 1: the two front offices might make that impossible. Zach Lavin

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Speaker 1: er Demartin Rosen, if the he at the Bulls go

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Speaker 1: south again, like Levigne, de Rosen and Vucevich each played

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Speaker 1: in at least seventy four games last year, and they

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Speaker 1: were below five hundred and missed the playoffs entirely. So

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Speaker 1: like that, that whole situation feels destined for a blow

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Speaker 1: up sooner than later. Terry Rogier we all know from

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Speaker 1: what happened over the summer, specifically with them potentially getting

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Speaker 1: involved in the Tyler Harrow discussions, that that the the

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Speaker 1: Hornets were looking for a different two guard to put

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Speaker 1: an Excellamela Ball like, maybe you can engage with them

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Speaker 1: straight up and work out a deal for Terry Rogier

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Speaker 1: and maybe a little bit of four depth there as well.

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Speaker 1: Jordan Clarkson with the Utah Jazz's guy keep an eye on.

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Speaker 1: And then D'Angelo Russell. I don't I don't think the

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Speaker 1: Lakers signed him with the intention of keeping him long term.

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Speaker 1: I think they just signed him with the intention of

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Speaker 1: keeping the asset. And I actually expecting Angela Russell to

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Speaker 1: get traded either this deadline or next offseason. So those

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Speaker 1: are guys that those are just examples of guys that

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Speaker 1: keep an eye on, Guys that I think within the

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Speaker 1: heat system could be productive enough defensively and provide enough

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Speaker 1: shot creation flanking Jimmy Butler to push them over the top.

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Speaker 1: And because this is the thing too often when push

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Speaker 1: comes to shove, Jimmy Butler is just their only guy

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Speaker 1: that can create a shot and it's like, Okay, we

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Speaker 1: can run this dribble handoff for Duncan Robinson or for

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Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent right. But like the bam offensive hub thing

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Speaker 1: has its limitations, and obviously all the guards and wings

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Speaker 1: that they've had in the last couple of years haven't

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Speaker 1: been enough. I think you need just something a little

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Speaker 1: bit higher caliber there on the offensive end. They were

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Speaker 1: twenty fifth in offensive rating last year, twenty third and

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Speaker 1: half court offense according to Cleaning the Glass. Similarly to

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Speaker 1: Denver with nicolea Jokic or Sacramento with Nicola with Sabonis,

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Speaker 1: they add a lot of the variation to their two

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Speaker 1: man game by using bam At a Bio as a

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Speaker 1: dribble handoff threat. And that's important for two specific reasons.

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Speaker 1: So think of it like this, like, if you have

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Speaker 1: a very skilled big man, it's actually better for you

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Speaker 1: to have the ball in his hands as a as

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Speaker 1: like kind of like an audible to your two man game.

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Speaker 1: The reason why is, like, imagine this as an example,

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Speaker 1: if I'm guarding a pick and roll and Bamana Bayo

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Speaker 1: is the screener, I don't have to worry about him

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Speaker 1: being a threat. Immediately, They've got to find a way

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Speaker 1: to get the ball to him. So if I blitz him,

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Speaker 1: and I if I blitz the ball handler and push

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Speaker 1: him far out to half court and force a lob pass,

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Speaker 1: I probably can rotate over right. And even if I

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Speaker 1: do throw a pass, like he's got to catch and

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Speaker 1: then turn and face and make a read. But in

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Speaker 1: a drible handoff situation, he's a threat immediately. And so

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Speaker 1: what that does is it makes it so that the

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Speaker 1: screen defender can't show high on screens right, So like

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Speaker 1: bam ade Bio's defender can't show high on a dribble

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Speaker 1: handoff because if he does, BAM's just gonna dribble right

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Speaker 1: around him and go to the basket. So it just

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Speaker 1: makes it a lot difficult, a lot more difficult to

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Speaker 1: guard from the standpoint of the screen defender. And then second,

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Speaker 1: it allows your limited offensive players that struggle to handle

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Speaker 1: the basketball. It allows them to get separation without needing

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Speaker 1: to use a live dribble to set their man up

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Speaker 1: for a ball screen or a dribble combination to get

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Speaker 1: separation before they go into the ball screen in any way,

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Speaker 1: shape or form, Like they can just v cut right,

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Speaker 1: like run into their man's chest, like give him a

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Speaker 1: little shove and then cut hard off of the handoff

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Speaker 1: and then they can get separation and get downhill or

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Speaker 1: rise and fire into jump shots. And that works specifically

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Speaker 1: with their roster really well, because they've got a lot

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Speaker 1: of guys like that that are not super high level

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Speaker 1: ball handlers but do have some offensive polish. Like Tyler Harrow,

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Speaker 1: he really struggles to generate separation with the live dribble.

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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, Tyler Harrow was the very

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Speaker 1: worst ISO player in the NBA last year. There were

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Speaker 1: seventy two players in the NBA that ran at least

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Speaker 1: one hundred ISOs, and Tyler Harrow's zero points seventy three

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Speaker 1: points per possession ranked dead last on that list. Handoffs

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Speaker 1: are a great way to help him with that. Although

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Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow did actually have a decent year and pick

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Speaker 1: and roll as well. Duncan Robinson similar type of thing.

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Speaker 1: He's actually gone up a level in his ball handling

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Speaker 1: and saw that a little bit in this postseason run

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Speaker 1: as he became more of a threat putting the ball

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Speaker 1: on the floor. But he was one point one to

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Speaker 1: two points per handoff last year, which is awesome. So

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Speaker 1: that's an example of a guy who's benefited from that,

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Speaker 1: and then Josh Richardson is another guy that I expect

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Speaker 1: to come in and immediately have some success playing alongside

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Speaker 1: bam at A Bayo. Josh Richardson was forty seven percent

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Speaker 1: on pull up jump shots last year with the New

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Speaker 1: Orleans Pelicans, so I think that could help as well.

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Speaker 1: One of the biggest keys to this entire heat season,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, is the development of Nikola Yovic. The

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Speaker 1: team is super thin at forward. Like I said, they

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Speaker 1: desperately need a useful forward to materialize from this group,

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Speaker 1: and he played pretty well with the Serbian team in

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Speaker 1: the FIBA tournament. He shot super well sixty one percent

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Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on jump shots. He even went

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Speaker 1: three for four on pull up jump shots. He has

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Speaker 1: like this nice little step back three going to his

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Speaker 1: left that he can make shot seventy four percent at

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Speaker 1: the rim, which is awesome, and he's showing some real polishers.

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Speaker 1: A post up against the Dominican Republic where he caught

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Speaker 1: the ball on the left block and felt the defender

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Speaker 1: overplaying his right shoulder, spun baseline, drew the help through

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Speaker 1: like a behind the back drop off pass to a

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Speaker 1: cutter like rose up and dunk it. That dunked it.

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Speaker 1: Then there was another play against Italy where he's posting

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Speaker 1: up on the opposite block, on the left block, and

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Speaker 1: like straight up like faked towards a drop step towards

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Speaker 1: the middle and spun into like a nasty fade away

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Speaker 1: over his right shoulder that he made like legitimately has

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Speaker 1: some high end potential there, some high end polished there,

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Speaker 1: and so like he could solve a lot of their

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Speaker 1: problems just by becoming a useful player this year. And

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Speaker 1: obviously as a rookie he didn't play much, but I

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Speaker 1: would imagine that they're counting on him to play a

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Speaker 1: much bigger role this season. Defensively, last year, the Miami

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Speaker 1: Heat ninth in defensive rating sixteenth and half court defense

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Speaker 1: according to Cleaning the Glass fourth and defensive rebounding percentage

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Speaker 1: fourth and protecting the paint seventh. Best transition defense in

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Speaker 1: the league. They gave up the seventh fewest total transition

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Speaker 1: points according to Synergy, and they were the third best

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Speaker 1: team in the league at forcing opponent turnovers. They're one

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Speaker 1: week spot in the defense, as they were the second

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Speaker 1: worst three point defense in the league. They gave up

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Speaker 1: the second most made threes per one possessions in the NBA,

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Speaker 1: so that's gonna be their big area for opportunity. Big

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Speaker 1: part of that, though, is they almost have to, with

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Speaker 1: their lack of size overall, pack the paint in order

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Speaker 1: to have any chance of getting stops there and rebounding.

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Speaker 1: But we know the drill here. No matter what happens

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Speaker 1: in the regular season, the same thing is going to

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Speaker 1: happen regardless of who they face. Spolstra is gonna have

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Speaker 1: a good game plan, Jimmy and Bam are gonna cause

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Speaker 1: all sorts of problems on both ends of the floor.

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Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler is gonna try to alpha dog your superstar,

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Speaker 1: and they're gonna have a really good chance to beat anybody.

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Speaker 1: But the question is will they run out of firepower again?

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Speaker 1: Every single year, This is what happens all of the

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Speaker 1: fringe contenders, Spolsterra, Jimmy and Bam beat right, but then

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Speaker 1: when they run into the bona fide contenders, the teams

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Speaker 1: that have the veteran presences like the Los Angeleskers in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, like the the Nuggets this year. I mean,

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Speaker 1: even that Celtics team from two years ago that was

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Speaker 1: much more committed defensively than last year's team was. They

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Speaker 1: just eventually run into a point where their lack of

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Speaker 1: talent becomes a problem. Right And I mean even that

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Speaker 1: super talented Celtics teams were one shot away because of

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Speaker 1: Jimmy's ability to alpha dog, because of Sposuer's ability to

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Speaker 1: bring out the worst in his opponents. Right. Like, So

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Speaker 1: my thing is, like, this is a really rare trio.

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Speaker 1: How often do you see the best coach in the

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Speaker 1: NBA with two of the best playoff performers in the

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Speaker 1: NBA together, Like, you have a real opportunity to get

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Speaker 1: a job done here. They just need more juice, they

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Speaker 1: just need a little bit more firepower. So I'm hoping

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Speaker 1: that pat Riley can make that happen for them this year. Mailbag,

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Speaker 1: first question from Nathan. What do you think is the

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Speaker 1: biggest thing Anthony Edwards can improve on in terms of

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Speaker 1: his game or his approach to the game to move

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Speaker 1: himself up and make the jump the season. So I

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Speaker 1: actually put down two things. His off ball defense. I

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Speaker 1: think Aint's actually deceptively one of the better on ball

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Speaker 1: defenders in the league. When he's actually trying, he can

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Speaker 1: be a little bit in and out, but that's typical

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Speaker 1: for a primary ball handler. But he can be really

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Speaker 1: unfocused off the ball, and he can leave shooters to

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Speaker 1: overhelp or not help when he's supposed to. So off

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Speaker 1: ball defense is a big one, I think in my opinion,

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Speaker 1: and that's just your defense is only strong, is its

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Speaker 1: weakest link in a rotation, and so I think it's

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Speaker 1: important really just for the overall mission of that team,

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Speaker 1: for and to be more engaged off the ball defensively.

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Speaker 1: The second thing I put down is looking to pass

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Speaker 1: the ball more. With how much rim pressure he generates,

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Speaker 1: he should be a seven eight assist a game guy,

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Speaker 1: right and he's about half that. So I really just

430
00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:20,080
Speaker 1: want to see him take advantage of the way he

431
00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:24,760
Speaker 1: warps defenses more. Second mail back question, what's your view

432
00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:27,359
Speaker 1: on Bill Russell and his place in the goat debate.

433
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:30,639
Speaker 1: Do you think there's an asterisk next to his eleven

434
00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:33,960
Speaker 1: rings due to less competition or does his defensive dominance

435
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:35,800
Speaker 1: and overall winning impacts put him near the top of

436
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:38,760
Speaker 1: your all time rankings. So here's the thing. You know,

437
00:20:39,320 --> 00:20:41,399
Speaker 1: all of the players from that era say Bill Russell

438
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:43,600
Speaker 1: was the best player in that era. I think that matters.

439
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,399
Speaker 1: My individual opinion on it is like everything before nineteen

440
00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:51,359
Speaker 1: eighty is so difficult to compare to the modern game

441
00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,400
Speaker 1: that I just personally don't feel comfortable having strong opinions there.

442
00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:57,960
Speaker 1: So I have a ton of respect for Bill Russell

443
00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:00,600
Speaker 1: and everything he accomplished in the league. I believe that

444
00:21:00,640 --> 00:21:04,679
Speaker 1: in his era his dominance means something, But like I

445
00:21:04,720 --> 00:21:07,560
Speaker 1: can't in my I don't even feel right comparing like

446
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,720
Speaker 1: Bill Russell to let's say Tim Duncan, because the game

447
00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:15,119
Speaker 1: is just so fundamentally different now, and the league is

448
00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:17,480
Speaker 1: so different in just the overall scope of what it

449
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:19,720
Speaker 1: presents as a as a challenge, in terms of the

450
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:22,240
Speaker 1: number of teams and the way the playoff path works,

451
00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:25,719
Speaker 1: and even just the difficulty of travel in the regular season,

452
00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:29,159
Speaker 1: like like even to the medical advantages that we have

453
00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:31,840
Speaker 1: now compared to what they had back then, and all

454
00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:34,520
Speaker 1: the other issues that they went up against. And you know,

455
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:37,879
Speaker 1: the tools that the players have at their disposal because

456
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,120
Speaker 1: of extreme wealth that allows them to you know, eat

457
00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:44,399
Speaker 1: a certain way and to train a certain way and

458
00:21:44,440 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: to recover a certain way, like I all over the place.

459
00:21:48,119 --> 00:21:51,320
Speaker 1: It's like Apple's oranges. And so the truth is like

460
00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,280
Speaker 1: There's a reason why I did a top twenty five

461
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,239
Speaker 1: of the last twenty five years, and it's because, like

462
00:21:56,400 --> 00:21:59,600
Speaker 1: I feel more comfortable talking about the modern era. Personally,

463
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:02,360
Speaker 1: I think there's a place in NBA history to talk

464
00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 1: about the old guys. I enjoy reading books about older

465
00:22:06,320 --> 00:22:08,879
Speaker 1: eras in NBA history and learning more about these guys.

466
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:11,600
Speaker 1: But to me, there's just no point in putting Bill

467
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:13,840
Speaker 1: Russell in the same list as a guy who played

468
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:16,639
Speaker 1: sixty years later. Just doesn't make any sense to me.

469
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:20,280
Speaker 1: Last question from Juan totally see what you're saying about

470
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:23,720
Speaker 1: Harden's performance last postseason. This is from our Sixers video yesterday.

471
00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:26,119
Speaker 1: But can it be argued that he deferred to the

472
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 1: MVP and thus affected his game? So I did notice

473
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:31,600
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season that James struggled a

474
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:34,560
Speaker 1: little bit, and there were some conversations with Doc over

475
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:37,600
Speaker 1: you know, him feeling really good going into the season

476
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:40,400
Speaker 1: after a good offseason of work and wanting a bigger role,

477
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: but Doc trying to get him to defer to him

478
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,600
Speaker 1: bed more. And there's no doubt that that, you know,

479
00:22:45,720 --> 00:22:47,959
Speaker 1: probably played a role in him only averaging twenty one

480
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:50,520
Speaker 1: points in the regular season. But We've just seen too

481
00:22:50,560 --> 00:22:53,639
Speaker 1: many examples in his career of him going down a

482
00:22:53,680 --> 00:22:55,320
Speaker 1: level in the postseason for me to think I played

483
00:22:55,320 --> 00:22:57,320
Speaker 1: a role in the postseason and go look at those

484
00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,760
Speaker 1: shooting numbers, like we're way too many four six, two

485
00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 1: for thirteen, two for fourteen three for Like, he just

486
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:07,600
Speaker 1: was consistently missing all of his shots. I mean, I

487
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:09,879
Speaker 1: pulled up the numbers in the video yesterday, but I

488
00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:11,640
Speaker 1: can't remember the exact number. It was like thirty five

489
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:14,600
Speaker 1: percent or thirty seven percent. But he literally missed two

490
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 1: thirds of his layups in the postseason. That's not on

491
00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:20,879
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid. That's not on his role. That's him just

492
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:22,880
Speaker 1: not having the athletic pop to get to the rim

493
00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:25,879
Speaker 1: and finish well. So yeah, like, I don't really think

494
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,520
Speaker 1: that it's you know, if this was in a vacuum

495
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,200
Speaker 1: and we didn't have the rest of his history, maybe

496
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:32,000
Speaker 1: you could look at it that way. But looking at

497
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: Harden's history, I don't think there's any direction you can

498
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,160
Speaker 1: look but at him for his playoff struggles. All right, guys,

499
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:38,560
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We got six

500
00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 1: more teams to go over. Probably gonna have a couple

501
00:23:40,520 --> 00:23:44,400
Speaker 1: of trades as well. We'll hit it all into next

502
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 1: week unless something crazy happens. As always, I appreciate you guys,

503
00:23:47,040 --> 00:24:08,200
Speaker 1: and i'll see you after the weekend. The volume