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Speaker 1: All right, welcome to tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody.
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Speaker 1: these shows. Continuing our Power rankings today with number seven
Speaker 1: The Losers, the Damian Lillard Trade Saga, the Miami Heat,
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Speaker 1: So the Miami Heat they lost a lot of players. Actually,
Speaker 1: Eudonis Haslim retired finally. Victor Oladipo obviously was injured at
Speaker 1: the end of last year, but he's gone now to
Speaker 1: Max Struskay Vincent elsewhere, Omer your seven, and Cody Zeller
Speaker 1: as well elsewhere. They added Josh Richardson a good replacement
Speaker 1: at guard. He's an excellent point of attack defender. I
Speaker 1: was going back the other day when we were covering
Speaker 1: the Thunder and I was watching that Pelicans Thunder game,
Speaker 1: and really the one time they got SGA kind of
Speaker 1: sort of under control was when Josh Richardson was on it.
Speaker 1: He's just a pass to. He can navigate screens well.
Speaker 1: He's good with bal denial as well. Just a good
Speaker 1: defensive guard. He also shot the ball pretty well last
Speaker 1: year with the Pelicans, and he has him off the
Speaker 1: dribble pop view. Heat fans already know him pretty well,
Speaker 1: but this will be a better example this time around
Speaker 1: of getting him to see what it's like working with
Speaker 1: this version of bam Adebayo and the excellent jubil handoff
Speaker 1: fulcrum that he's become. Thomas Bryant the backup center for
Speaker 1: the Lakers and Nuggets last year. I covered him pretty
Speaker 1: closely when he was with the Lakers. Very gifted offensively,
Speaker 1: he catches and finishes well around the rim. He's super
Speaker 1: active on the glass. He's gonna sprint up and down
Speaker 1: the floor and transition every single time. And he can
Speaker 1: shoot the ball pretty well like a legitimate pick and
Speaker 1: pop through at As a matter of fact, he converted
Speaker 1: rollman possessions at one point three to five points per
Speaker 1: possession when he was with the Lakers, which is really
Speaker 1: really good. But he struggles to guard and pick and
Speaker 1: roll and he offers no rim protection. So he's fine
Speaker 1: regular season player, but you probably don't want him in
Speaker 1: your playoff rotation, and Denver did not use him. That said,
Speaker 1: Eric Spolser has a gift for We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about this more later, but he has a gift for
Speaker 1: finding defensive roles that players can thrive in, even limited
Speaker 1: defensive players. So I am curious to see what Eric
Speaker 1: Spolster can do with him. They also brought over Schek Tialo,
Speaker 1: who played in Japan last year. He'll be competing for
Speaker 1: a spot in camp. RJ. Hampton a backup guard for
Speaker 1: the Pistons. Jimi hack has Junior. I covered him in
Speaker 1: summer League. Really versatile wing that I actually really like,
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna be a good pro right away.
Speaker 1: Just a good basketball player does a bunch of little things. Well.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna be a perfect fit with the Heat.
Speaker 1: And then Cole Swider, I covered him with the Lakers
Speaker 1: last year. Really can shoot it, but struggles to do
Speaker 1: everything else, which again I can think of no better
Speaker 1: place than the Heat to try to figure out if
Speaker 1: there's something else there. So the depth chart as of
Speaker 1: right now at guard Kyle Lowry, Tyler Harrow, Josh Richardson,
Speaker 1: Caleb Martin, and RJ. Hampton. At Ford Jimmy Butler, Duncan Robinson,
Speaker 1: Himeh hake As, Junior, Nikola Yovitch, who we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: a lot about today, and Heywood high Smith and then
Speaker 1: the bigs bam Adebayo, Thomas Bryant, Orlando Robinson and Shakyallo
Speaker 1: the Dame Trait. So the Blazers obviously yesterday were able
Speaker 1: to turn Damian Lillard into Drew Holliday DeAndre and draft compensations.
Speaker 1: So the Athletic had a big report that came out
Speaker 1: this morning that basically broke down the path way that
Speaker 1: led to Dame ending up in Milwaukee, and it was
Speaker 1: pretty informative about just how little of a chance Miami
Speaker 1: actually had. I know there were a lot of Heat
Speaker 1: fans that are frustrated with pat Riley, and I get it.
Speaker 1: It's not even so much Dame as it is the
Speaker 1: bigger picture. Like you missed out on Dame, you missed
Speaker 1: out on Bradley beal right, Like it's just it's been
Speaker 1: kind of a steady you missed out on Donovan Mitchell,
Speaker 1: Like it's been a steady train of players that you know,
Speaker 1: the Heat could have jumped on but couldn't figure out.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is they don't really have that
Speaker 1: grade of a situation to make a star trade. Like
Speaker 1: many contenders, They can't afford to give away one of
Speaker 1: their core pieces in that deal, right, Like you can't
Speaker 1: give up Jimmy Butler, BAM and a Bio in the
Speaker 1: deal because then you lose your championship ceiling anyway, right,
Speaker 1: And those are really the only two core pieces, right,
Speaker 1: But they don't really have a young player of the
Speaker 1: league once, Like Tyler Harrow is a good player, but
Speaker 1: he's already on an expensive deal and a lot of
Speaker 1: front offices don't think he's that good. Like he's kind
Speaker 1: of a polarizing player. Nikole Jovitch. Really interesting young player,
Speaker 1: but not exactly a needle mover. Right. And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: Like Miami draft picks are some of the least valuable
Speaker 1: in the league because they're a great organization that rarely
Speaker 1: loses basketball games. I was pulling this up earlier. Since
Speaker 1: two thousand and four, the Heat have the fourth most
Speaker 1: regular season wins in the entire NBA. A little trivia
Speaker 1: for you guys, Who do you think are the three
Speaker 1: teams that were ahead of the Heat since two thousand
Speaker 1: and four, So that's starting with the two thousand and three,
Speaker 1: two thousand and four season, call it since Lebron came
Speaker 1: into the league. Which teams do you think have the
Speaker 1: most regular season wins? Spurs pretty obvious one, right, Mavericks
Speaker 1: a third one. I don't think you guys are gonna
Speaker 1: get but we'll see if you get it. Tell me
Speaker 1: in the comments. The Denver Nuggets, or third on that list.
Speaker 1: They also, the Miami Heat have one hundred and forty
Speaker 1: two playoff wins since two thousand and four, which is
Speaker 1: nineteen more than any other team in the NBA, So
Speaker 1: they're the winningest playoff team over the last two decades
Speaker 1: and they're the fourth winningest regular season team. So the
Speaker 1: draft picks aren't worth all that much. I would imagine
Speaker 1: that port And looks at Milwaukee's draft picks as a
Speaker 1: much higher chance of being higher value. Right. So the
Speaker 1: reality is is like it's easy for us in our
Speaker 1: chairs to be like, hey, why didn't they make a
Speaker 1: move on this guy, Why didn't they make a move
Speaker 1: on that guy? And we really don't know what's happening
Speaker 1: behind the scenes. And the truth is is that Miami's
Speaker 1: not really in a position where they can easily beat
Speaker 1: out other teams in a bidding war. But we even
Speaker 1: found out from that Athletic report today that they didn't
Speaker 1: really have much of a chance to begin with. So
Speaker 1: the Athletic reported that Dame went to the front office
Speaker 1: and requested a trade and said he wanted to go
Speaker 1: to Miami. And when Portland called Miami, they asked for
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler or bam Adebio in the deal, according to
Speaker 1: this report from the Athletic, Like, that's just not serious, right,
Speaker 1: And then the Athletic also reported that it was pretty
Speaker 1: damn contentious between the two sides, So you know, Dame
Speaker 1: basically is known for a couple of weeks that Miami
Speaker 1: was off the table, and at that point then he
Speaker 1: started using his agent behind the scenes to push for
Speaker 1: either Brooklyn or Milwaukee, and Milwaukee is what ended up materializing.
Speaker 1: So it's like, maybe maybe pat Riley could have thrown
Speaker 1: all of the assets on the table and gotten the
Speaker 1: deal done. But the truth is we don't know, and
Speaker 1: I don't think that that's necessarily fair criticism, especially now
Speaker 1: that we know the details behind the scene. I was
Speaker 1: under the impression that Portland wanted to send him where
Speaker 1: he wanted to go, but was more interested in just
Speaker 1: kind of like trying to leverage Miami into giving up
Speaker 1: a little bit more. Judging from this report from the Athletic,
Speaker 1: it looks like Portland had really no interest in sending
Speaker 1: him to Miami to begin with. So I don't want
Speaker 1: to be too critical of pat Riley in this instance.
Speaker 1: The reality is though, is that the Heat need to
Speaker 1: do something. And I wrote down four reasons why. There
Speaker 1: are four reasons why I think the Heat have to
Speaker 1: get aggressive in some way, shape or form before the
Speaker 1: deadline at least if not in the next couple of days.
Speaker 1: So One, the Jimmy Butler bam Ata Bio combination is
Speaker 1: easily one of the best playoff combinations in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and they've proven that, like they've literally been to the
Speaker 1: conference finals three of the last four years, and they've
Speaker 1: won the conference twice. Again, this is the conference that
Speaker 1: when you think of you think of Jason Tatum, you
Speaker 1: think of Joe Elmbid, you think of Gianni Santanakompo, and
Speaker 1: yet Jimmy and bam have won the conference two of
Speaker 1: the last four years and made it to the conference
Speaker 1: finals three the last four years. So that is a
Speaker 1: combination that has proven to be devastating in the NBA playoffs. Two,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler just turned thirty four years old, so there's
Speaker 1: real urgency to try to get something done in this
Speaker 1: season or in the following season. Three. Eric Spolstra is
Speaker 1: the very best coach in the NBA. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk more about that later. That's a real
Speaker 1: weapon here, right, And then number four. Consistently, the success
Speaker 1: that we've seen the Heat have in the playoffs has
Speaker 1: been because of their top tier talent and because of
Speaker 1: Eric Spolstra, and often they've been overcoming or operating with
Speaker 1: a significant talent disadvantage. It's been a firepower issue. So
Speaker 1: it's a reasonable assumption to think that the Heat are
Speaker 1: like one legitimate shot creator away from having a real
Speaker 1: chance to win the title. Not like make the finals
Speaker 1: and have a couple of scratch he wins against a
Speaker 1: team that pounds you into oblivion and wins the series,
Speaker 1: but like actually win the damn thing. I really do
Speaker 1: think they're potentially one move away, and so I'd like
Speaker 1: to see them be more aggressive. So the question is
Speaker 1: is what specifically do they need now? As we know,
Speaker 1: one of Eric Spolster's specific gifts, like that we talked
Speaker 1: about with Thomas Bryant and we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: here in a little bit as well, is his ability
Speaker 1: to craft defensive roles in schemes that actually work for
Speaker 1: personnel that have limitations. Right, Like, each year he kind
Speaker 1: of just finds a scheme that works for that unit.
Speaker 1: He picks each player and identifies what they're capable of
Speaker 1: actually doing well and finds a role for that within
Speaker 1: his scheme. Right, So, like, I don't think you need
Speaker 1: to go after some dude who's like a devastating two
Speaker 1: way player necessarily, and I would be open to players
Speaker 1: that have defensive flaws. I think they need a guard.
Speaker 1: I think they need a guard that can consistently generate
Speaker 1: high quality shots in the half court against elite playoff defenses,
Speaker 1: at least a fringe all All Star level player, maybe
Speaker 1: not a guy who makes the All Star team, but
Speaker 1: a guy that you think of as like an All
Speaker 1: Star caliber type of player. Right, So, guys that keep
Speaker 1: an eye on Drew Holliday obviously, although the contentiousness between
Speaker 1: the two front offices might make that impossible. Zach Lavin
Speaker 1: er Demartin Rosen, if the he at the Bulls go
Speaker 1: south again, like Levigne, de Rosen and Vucevich each played
Speaker 1: in at least seventy four games last year, and they
Speaker 1: were below five hundred and missed the playoffs entirely. So
Speaker 1: like that, that whole situation feels destined for a blow
Speaker 1: up sooner than later. Terry Rogier we all know from
Speaker 1: what happened over the summer, specifically with them potentially getting
Speaker 1: involved in the Tyler Harrow discussions, that that the the
Speaker 1: Hornets were looking for a different two guard to put
Speaker 1: an Excellamela Ball like, maybe you can engage with them
Speaker 1: straight up and work out a deal for Terry Rogier
Speaker 1: and maybe a little bit of four depth there as well.
Speaker 1: Jordan Clarkson with the Utah Jazz's guy keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: And then D'Angelo Russell. I don't I don't think the
Speaker 1: Lakers signed him with the intention of keeping him long term.
Speaker 1: I think they just signed him with the intention of
Speaker 1: keeping the asset. And I actually expecting Angela Russell to
Speaker 1: get traded either this deadline or next offseason. So those
Speaker 1: are guys that those are just examples of guys that
Speaker 1: keep an eye on, Guys that I think within the
Speaker 1: heat system could be productive enough defensively and provide enough
Speaker 1: shot creation flanking Jimmy Butler to push them over the top.
Speaker 1: And because this is the thing too often when push
Speaker 1: comes to shove, Jimmy Butler is just their only guy
Speaker 1: that can create a shot and it's like, Okay, we
Speaker 1: can run this dribble handoff for Duncan Robinson or for
Speaker 1: Gabe Vincent right. But like the bam offensive hub thing
Speaker 1: has its limitations, and obviously all the guards and wings
Speaker 1: that they've had in the last couple of years haven't
Speaker 1: been enough. I think you need just something a little
Speaker 1: bit higher caliber there on the offensive end. They were
Speaker 1: twenty fifth in offensive rating last year, twenty third and
Speaker 1: half court offense according to Cleaning the Glass. Similarly to
Speaker 1: Denver with nicolea Jokic or Sacramento with Nicola with Sabonis,
Speaker 1: they add a lot of the variation to their two
Speaker 1: man game by using bam At a Bio as a
Speaker 1: dribble handoff threat. And that's important for two specific reasons.
Speaker 1: So think of it like this, like, if you have
Speaker 1: a very skilled big man, it's actually better for you
Speaker 1: to have the ball in his hands as a as
Speaker 1: like kind of like an audible to your two man game.
Speaker 1: The reason why is, like, imagine this as an example,
Speaker 1: if I'm guarding a pick and roll and Bamana Bayo
Speaker 1: is the screener, I don't have to worry about him
Speaker 1: being a threat. Immediately, They've got to find a way
Speaker 1: to get the ball to him. So if I blitz him,
Speaker 1: and I if I blitz the ball handler and push
Speaker 1: him far out to half court and force a lob pass,
Speaker 1: I probably can rotate over right. And even if I
Speaker 1: do throw a pass, like he's got to catch and
Speaker 1: then turn and face and make a read. But in
Speaker 1: a drible handoff situation, he's a threat immediately. And so
Speaker 1: what that does is it makes it so that the
Speaker 1: screen defender can't show high on screens right, So like
Speaker 1: bam ade Bio's defender can't show high on a dribble
Speaker 1: handoff because if he does, BAM's just gonna dribble right
Speaker 1: around him and go to the basket. So it just
Speaker 1: makes it a lot difficult, a lot more difficult to
Speaker 1: guard from the standpoint of the screen defender. And then second,
Speaker 1: it allows your limited offensive players that struggle to handle
Speaker 1: the basketball. It allows them to get separation without needing
Speaker 1: to use a live dribble to set their man up
Speaker 1: for a ball screen or a dribble combination to get
Speaker 1: separation before they go into the ball screen in any way,
Speaker 1: shape or form, Like they can just v cut right,
Speaker 1: like run into their man's chest, like give him a
Speaker 1: little shove and then cut hard off of the handoff
Speaker 1: and then they can get separation and get downhill or
Speaker 1: rise and fire into jump shots. And that works specifically
Speaker 1: with their roster really well, because they've got a lot
Speaker 1: of guys like that that are not super high level
Speaker 1: ball handlers but do have some offensive polish. Like Tyler Harrow,
Speaker 1: he really struggles to generate separation with the live dribble.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, Tyler Harrow was the very
Speaker 1: worst ISO player in the NBA last year. There were
Speaker 1: seventy two players in the NBA that ran at least
Speaker 1: one hundred ISOs, and Tyler Harrow's zero points seventy three
Speaker 1: points per possession ranked dead last on that list. Handoffs
Speaker 1: are a great way to help him with that. Although
Speaker 1: Tyler Harrow did actually have a decent year and pick
Speaker 1: and roll as well. Duncan Robinson similar type of thing.
Speaker 1: He's actually gone up a level in his ball handling
Speaker 1: and saw that a little bit in this postseason run
Speaker 1: as he became more of a threat putting the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor. But he was one point one to
Speaker 1: two points per handoff last year, which is awesome. So
Speaker 1: that's an example of a guy who's benefited from that,
Speaker 1: and then Josh Richardson is another guy that I expect
Speaker 1: to come in and immediately have some success playing alongside
Speaker 1: bam at A Bayo. Josh Richardson was forty seven percent
Speaker 1: on pull up jump shots last year with the New
Speaker 1: Orleans Pelicans, so I think that could help as well.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest keys to this entire heat season,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, is the development of Nikola Yovic. The
Speaker 1: team is super thin at forward. Like I said, they
Speaker 1: desperately need a useful forward to materialize from this group,
Speaker 1: and he played pretty well with the Serbian team in
Speaker 1: the FIBA tournament. He shot super well sixty one percent
Speaker 1: effective field goal percentage on jump shots. He even went
Speaker 1: three for four on pull up jump shots. He has
Speaker 1: like this nice little step back three going to his
Speaker 1: left that he can make shot seventy four percent at
Speaker 1: the rim, which is awesome, and he's showing some real polishers.
Speaker 1: A post up against the Dominican Republic where he caught
Speaker 1: the ball on the left block and felt the defender
Speaker 1: overplaying his right shoulder, spun baseline, drew the help through
Speaker 1: like a behind the back drop off pass to a
Speaker 1: cutter like rose up and dunk it. That dunked it.
Speaker 1: Then there was another play against Italy where he's posting
Speaker 1: up on the opposite block, on the left block, and
Speaker 1: like straight up like faked towards a drop step towards
Speaker 1: the middle and spun into like a nasty fade away
Speaker 1: over his right shoulder that he made like legitimately has
Speaker 1: some high end potential there, some high end polished there,
Speaker 1: and so like he could solve a lot of their
Speaker 1: problems just by becoming a useful player this year. And
Speaker 1: obviously as a rookie he didn't play much, but I
Speaker 1: would imagine that they're counting on him to play a
Speaker 1: much bigger role this season. Defensively, last year, the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat ninth in defensive rating sixteenth and half court defense
Speaker 1: according to Cleaning the Glass fourth and defensive rebounding percentage
Speaker 1: fourth and protecting the paint seventh. Best transition defense in
Speaker 1: the league. They gave up the seventh fewest total transition
Speaker 1: points according to Synergy, and they were the third best
Speaker 1: team in the league at forcing opponent turnovers. They're one
Speaker 1: week spot in the defense, as they were the second
Speaker 1: worst three point defense in the league. They gave up
Speaker 1: the second most made threes per one possessions in the NBA,
Speaker 1: so that's gonna be their big area for opportunity. Big
Speaker 1: part of that, though, is they almost have to, with
Speaker 1: their lack of size overall, pack the paint in order
Speaker 1: to have any chance of getting stops there and rebounding.
Speaker 1: But we know the drill here. No matter what happens
Speaker 1: in the regular season, the same thing is going to
Speaker 1: happen regardless of who they face. Spolstra is gonna have
Speaker 1: a good game plan, Jimmy and Bam are gonna cause
Speaker 1: all sorts of problems on both ends of the floor.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler is gonna try to alpha dog your superstar,
Speaker 1: and they're gonna have a really good chance to beat anybody.
Speaker 1: But the question is will they run out of firepower again?
Speaker 1: Every single year, This is what happens all of the
Speaker 1: fringe contenders, Spolsterra, Jimmy and Bam beat right, but then
Speaker 1: when they run into the bona fide contenders, the teams
Speaker 1: that have the veteran presences like the Los Angeleskers in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, like the the Nuggets this year. I mean,
Speaker 1: even that Celtics team from two years ago that was
Speaker 1: much more committed defensively than last year's team was. They
Speaker 1: just eventually run into a point where their lack of
Speaker 1: talent becomes a problem. Right And I mean even that
Speaker 1: super talented Celtics teams were one shot away because of
Speaker 1: Jimmy's ability to alpha dog, because of Sposuer's ability to
Speaker 1: bring out the worst in his opponents. Right. Like, So
Speaker 1: my thing is, like, this is a really rare trio.
Speaker 1: How often do you see the best coach in the
Speaker 1: NBA with two of the best playoff performers in the
Speaker 1: NBA together, Like, you have a real opportunity to get
Speaker 1: a job done here. They just need more juice, they
Speaker 1: just need a little bit more firepower. So I'm hoping
Speaker 1: that pat Riley can make that happen for them this year. Mailbag,
Speaker 1: first question from Nathan. What do you think is the
Speaker 1: biggest thing Anthony Edwards can improve on in terms of
Speaker 1: his game or his approach to the game to move
Speaker 1: himself up and make the jump the season. So I
Speaker 1: actually put down two things. His off ball defense. I
Speaker 1: think Aint's actually deceptively one of the better on ball
Speaker 1: defenders in the league. When he's actually trying, he can
Speaker 1: be a little bit in and out, but that's typical
Speaker 1: for a primary ball handler. But he can be really
Speaker 1: unfocused off the ball, and he can leave shooters to
Speaker 1: overhelp or not help when he's supposed to. So off
Speaker 1: ball defense is a big one, I think in my opinion,
Speaker 1: and that's just your defense is only strong, is its
Speaker 1: weakest link in a rotation, and so I think it's
Speaker 1: important really just for the overall mission of that team,
Speaker 1: for and to be more engaged off the ball defensively.
Speaker 1: The second thing I put down is looking to pass
Speaker 1: the ball more. With how much rim pressure he generates,
Speaker 1: he should be a seven eight assist a game guy,
Speaker 1: right and he's about half that. So I really just
Speaker 1: want to see him take advantage of the way he
Speaker 1: warps defenses more. Second mail back question, what's your view
Speaker 1: on Bill Russell and his place in the goat debate.
Speaker 1: Do you think there's an asterisk next to his eleven
Speaker 1: rings due to less competition or does his defensive dominance
Speaker 1: and overall winning impacts put him near the top of
Speaker 1: your all time rankings. So here's the thing. You know,
Speaker 1: all of the players from that era say Bill Russell
Speaker 1: was the best player in that era. I think that matters.
Speaker 1: My individual opinion on it is like everything before nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty is so difficult to compare to the modern game
Speaker 1: that I just personally don't feel comfortable having strong opinions there.
Speaker 1: So I have a ton of respect for Bill Russell
Speaker 1: and everything he accomplished in the league. I believe that
Speaker 1: in his era his dominance means something, But like I
Speaker 1: can't in my I don't even feel right comparing like
Speaker 1: Bill Russell to let's say Tim Duncan, because the game
Speaker 1: is just so fundamentally different now, and the league is
Speaker 1: so different in just the overall scope of what it
Speaker 1: presents as a as a challenge, in terms of the
Speaker 1: number of teams and the way the playoff path works,
Speaker 1: and even just the difficulty of travel in the regular season,
Speaker 1: like like even to the medical advantages that we have
Speaker 1: now compared to what they had back then, and all
Speaker 1: the other issues that they went up against. And you know,
Speaker 1: the tools that the players have at their disposal because
Speaker 1: of extreme wealth that allows them to you know, eat
Speaker 1: a certain way and to train a certain way and
Speaker 1: to recover a certain way, like I all over the place.
Speaker 1: It's like Apple's oranges. And so the truth is like
Speaker 1: There's a reason why I did a top twenty five
Speaker 1: of the last twenty five years, and it's because, like
Speaker 1: I feel more comfortable talking about the modern era. Personally,
Speaker 1: I think there's a place in NBA history to talk
Speaker 1: about the old guys. I enjoy reading books about older
Speaker 1: eras in NBA history and learning more about these guys.
Speaker 1: But to me, there's just no point in putting Bill
Speaker 1: Russell in the same list as a guy who played
Speaker 1: sixty years later. Just doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 1: Last question from Juan totally see what you're saying about
Speaker 1: Harden's performance last postseason. This is from our Sixers video yesterday.
Speaker 1: But can it be argued that he deferred to the
Speaker 1: MVP and thus affected his game? So I did notice
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season that James struggled a
Speaker 1: little bit, and there were some conversations with Doc over
Speaker 1: you know, him feeling really good going into the season
Speaker 1: after a good offseason of work and wanting a bigger role,
Speaker 1: but Doc trying to get him to defer to him
Speaker 1: bed more. And there's no doubt that that, you know,
Speaker 1: probably played a role in him only averaging twenty one
Speaker 1: points in the regular season. But We've just seen too
Speaker 1: many examples in his career of him going down a
Speaker 1: level in the postseason for me to think I played
Speaker 1: a role in the postseason and go look at those
Speaker 1: shooting numbers, like we're way too many four six, two
Speaker 1: for thirteen, two for fourteen three for Like, he just
Speaker 1: was consistently missing all of his shots. I mean, I
Speaker 1: pulled up the numbers in the video yesterday, but I
Speaker 1: can't remember the exact number. It was like thirty five
Speaker 1: percent or thirty seven percent. But he literally missed two
Speaker 1: thirds of his layups in the postseason. That's not on
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid. That's not on his role. That's him just
Speaker 1: not having the athletic pop to get to the rim
Speaker 1: and finish well. So yeah, like, I don't really think
Speaker 1: that it's you know, if this was in a vacuum
Speaker 1: and we didn't have the rest of his history, maybe
Speaker 1: you could look at it that way. But looking at
Speaker 1: Harden's history, I don't think there's any direction you can
Speaker 1: look but at him for his playoff struggles. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We got six
Speaker 1: more teams to go over. Probably gonna have a couple
Speaker 1: of trades as well. We'll hit it all into next
Speaker 1: week unless something crazy happens. As always, I appreciate you guys,
Speaker 1: and i'll see you after the weekend. The volume