Speaker 1: The volume. We're this close to crowning a new NBA champ,
Speaker 1: and with the action heating up on the court, it's
Speaker 1: even hotter. At Draftking Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner
Speaker 1: of the NBA. There's only so many games left, and
Speaker 1: DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered with same game parlays, live
Speaker 1: betting odds, boosts, and so much more. Don't miss out
Speaker 1: or you'll have to wait until next NBA season to
Speaker 1: place your bets. It's super easy for first timers to
Speaker 1: get started. Try betting on something simple like picking a
Speaker 1: team to win. Go to the Draftking Sportsbook app, select
Speaker 1: your squad and place your first bet. It's that simple.
Speaker 1: The odds for the NBA Finals are up on DraftKings
Speaker 1: right now. You can get Boston at minus two twenty
Speaker 1: to win the title. Dallas is at plus one seventy five.
Speaker 1: New to DraftKings listen up. New customers can get a
Speaker 1: no sweat bet up to fifteen hundred bucks. Just deposit
Speaker 1: at least five bucks and you'll get a bonus bet
Speaker 1: back equal to your first bet if it doesn't hit.
Speaker 1: Download Draft Kings Sportsbook app now and use code hoops.
Speaker 1: That's code hoops Hoops for new cust to get a
Speaker 1: no sweat bet up to fifteen hundred bucks if your
Speaker 1: first bet doesn't hit only on DraftKings, the crown is yours.
Speaker 1: Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler or in West
Speaker 1: Virginia visit www dot one eight hundred gambler dot net.
Speaker 1: In New York, call eight seven seven eight hope and why,
Speaker 1: or text hope and why to four six seven three
Speaker 1: six nine. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.
Speaker 1: Call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven
Speaker 1: seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on
Speaker 1: behalf of Boothill Casino and resort. In Kansas twenty one
Speaker 1: plus age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. One no
Speaker 1: sweat bet per new customer issued as one bonus bet
Speaker 1: based on amount of initial losing bet. Bonus bets expire
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. See dkang
Speaker 1: dot co slash bball for eligibility, wagering and deposit restrictions,
Speaker 1: terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops
Speaker 1: to night here at the volume Havy Sunday. Everybody, hope
Speaker 1: all of you guys are having a great weekend as
Speaker 1: promised our third mail bag today. On Friday, we hit
Speaker 1: the Western Conference Finals and all the fallout, some stuff
Speaker 1: big picture with Luca and the MAVs, and then also
Speaker 1: just looking forward for the Timberwolves. You can find that
Speaker 1: on the feeds. Earlier Saturday, we did an NBA Finals
Speaker 1: mail bag, just some kind of preliminary stuff before we
Speaker 1: get into our real prep starting next week on Monday. Today,
Speaker 1: all the mail bag questions that surrounded anything else, stuff
Speaker 1: about the non basketball stuff, stuff about the rest of
Speaker 1: the league. We're fitting that into today's mail bag. You
Speaker 1: guys are the job. Before we get started, subscribe to
Speaker 1: the Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt so you guys don't miss youw announcement sont
Speaker 1: forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: under Hoops Tonight, and then keep dropping mail bag questions
Speaker 1: in those YouTube comments. We can keep hitting them throughout
Speaker 1: the rest of the postseason. All right, let's talk some basketball. So,
Speaker 1: first question, there has been a lot of talk about
Speaker 1: who the best player in the world is. After this series.
Speaker 1: It seems like most people would consider that to be
Speaker 1: Luka or Jokic. What is your criteria for judging what
Speaker 1: makes one player greater in a vacuum than another? Do
Speaker 1: you compare basic stats like points per game, rebounds per game,
Speaker 1: assist per game, etc. Do you look at any advanced stats,
Speaker 1: team success a combination of them all. I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear about what your measuring stick is for comparing one
Speaker 1: player to another. Thanks for all the fantastic content and
Speaker 1: for making the playoff watching experience greater for me this year.
Speaker 1: Thank you for supporting the show and for the kind words.
Speaker 1: It means a lot to me. Again, all throughout the
Speaker 1: mail diag, so many of you guys drop so many
Speaker 1: kind words, and I really truly appreciate it and all
Speaker 1: the support, and obviously the performance of the show has
Speaker 1: helped me realize just how much you guys support me,
Speaker 1: and it's something that I greatly appreciate. Best player in
Speaker 1: the world stuff. Everybody has different criteria, and so don't
Speaker 1: confuse me to talking about who I think the best
Speaker 1: player in the world is. As like the end all
Speaker 1: be all, you might have different criteria than me. I
Speaker 1: keep two separate lists. I keep two separate lists for
Speaker 1: my all time players as well. I separate permitter players
Speaker 1: in BIGS because I don't really feel comfortable saying Tim
Speaker 1: Duncan's better than Kobe or vice versa, when the two
Speaker 1: of them played such profoundly different positions in the NBA,
Speaker 1: their jobs just were not the same, right, And that's
Speaker 1: kind of how I feel about this particular type of discussion.
Speaker 1: To me, there's the in a vacuum, who's the best player? If,
Speaker 1: like I had a franchise with a number one pick
Speaker 1: and every single player in the league was a free agent,
Speaker 1: who would be the first guy I'd pick to build
Speaker 1: a team around for that season from the start of
Speaker 1: training camp hopefully through the end of June. Who am
Speaker 1: I picking? Right? That's one debate. Then there's like the
Speaker 1: bragging rights debate that to me, has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with any sort of specific traits of a basketball player.
Speaker 1: It has everything to do with the the importance of winning.
Speaker 1: For instance, we play these games for a reason. We
Speaker 1: play to win. We don't play for Instagram highlights. We
Speaker 1: play to see who's going to get the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
Speaker 1: And to me, that Larry O'Brien trophy is sacred. When
Speaker 1: I grew up as a kid and I'd turn on
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals and they'd have that long, you know,
Speaker 1: minute long kind of intro that they'd air with all
Speaker 1: the footage of like Magic Johnson yelling back to back
Speaker 1: and like Bill Russell in the locker room and Red
Speaker 1: Hour back smoking a cigar, and you know, Lebron hunched
Speaker 1: over crying in the later years, Lebron hunched over crying
Speaker 1: after winning in twenty sixteen, like all of the example,
Speaker 1: Anything's possible, Kevin Garnett screaming to the rooftops like that
Speaker 1: real to me is a representation of why we do this.
Speaker 1: We do this for Thearry O'Brien Trophy. It's all that matters.
Speaker 1: There's other stuff that matters, but this is the ultimate
Speaker 1: thing that matters. And so for me, like I believe
Speaker 1: in referencing the best player in the league in these
Speaker 1: two different lists so that we can properly account for
Speaker 1: those two things. For instance, in a vacuum, I think
Speaker 1: Lebron James was the best player in the world from
Speaker 1: about twenty twelve to twenty twenty. If I was picking
Speaker 1: a franch I was picking a player to start a
Speaker 1: franchise with He's the guy I'm picking every single time.
Speaker 1: From twenty twelve to twenty twenty, I thought he was
Speaker 1: the best. I didn't think I thought a couple players
Speaker 1: got close, but I never thought a player actually surpassed him. Right,
Speaker 1: But in terms of bragging rights, it's different, Right, Like,
Speaker 1: I totally understand why some Warriors fans would be like, Hey,
Speaker 1: what about Steph or KD or even Kawhi Leonard in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Right like that, I understand why some fan
Speaker 1: bases feel like their dude had the bragging rights for
Speaker 1: that season, And that makes sense to me. So that's
Speaker 1: what the purpose of the two lists are. How do
Speaker 1: we account for Lebron obviously being the best player in
Speaker 1: the world in twenty nineteen, because like what happened in
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen and what happened in twenty twenty twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: Lebron was by far the best player in the world,
Speaker 1: kicked ass through the entire playoff run, had like eight
Speaker 1: forty point playoff games, had a fifty point playoff game,
Speaker 1: and then ran into the KD Steph Warriors when he
Speaker 1: didn't have another top fifteen player on his team, and
Speaker 1: he lost right, but he was clearly the best player
Speaker 1: in the world twenty nineteen, sprains is growing, the strains
Speaker 1: is growing and misses the playoffs, right because he got hurt.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty, he comes back best player in the league
Speaker 1: start to finish. Should have one MVP team started twenty
Speaker 1: four and three dominated the playoff Run had a crazy efficient,
Speaker 1: high volume scoring, and a playmaking and rebounding Playoff Run
Speaker 1: was also an elite defender that year one finals MVP
Speaker 1: was clearly the best player in the world, right, Like,
Speaker 1: he was the best player for that entire stretch. He
Speaker 1: just got hurt in the middle and was on a
Speaker 1: different team that didn't have enough talent after he went
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles before the Anthony Davis trade, Right, But,
Speaker 1: like I understand why Kawhi would have the bragging rights
Speaker 1: that year. But if you were an NBAGM and you
Speaker 1: didn't know that Lebron was gonna get hurt and he
Speaker 1: had just had that twenty eighteen playoff run, you bet
Speaker 1: your ass you're drafting Lebron James over Kawhi Leonard to
Speaker 1: start the twenty nineteen season. That's kind of why I
Speaker 1: keep those two lists separate. Now, the question is if
Speaker 1: the bragging rights one is more focused on team results
Speaker 1: and just and again, just because you win doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you get that in my opinion. In my opinion, it's
Speaker 1: like who played the best basketball that specific year, combination
Speaker 1: of all those things you just mentioned, production in statistics,
Speaker 1: team success, degree of difficulty, all of that, to me
Speaker 1: gets factored in on the bragging right side of things.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the inn of vacuum side, I'm
Speaker 1: actually less concerned about some of the statistical stuff. It's
Speaker 1: more like actually analyzing what that player is good and
Speaker 1: bad at, because so much the statistical output has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with what the team construct is. It's
Speaker 1: no different than Jokic being a better scorer in the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two seasons when he
Speaker 1: didn't have Jamal Murray, but then when Jamal Murray came back,
Speaker 1: his scoring took a little dip as he offloaded some
Speaker 1: of those responsibilities. Like, that doesn't mean Yokic became a
Speaker 1: worst scorer. It's just a difference in the way the
Speaker 1: team was constructed, Right, So like that's kind of the
Speaker 1: way I look at the in a vacuum piece. I'm
Speaker 1: more looking at traits. Now, I wanted to rank the
Speaker 1: traits for the purpose of this question. I wanted to
Speaker 1: rank what I think are the most important traits in
Speaker 1: a vacuum for a basketball player. Number one, no question
Speaker 1: for me, half court shot creation. And the reason behind
Speaker 1: this is very simple. Defensively, you can scheme an elite defense.
Speaker 1: Just look at Luca this year or Jokic last year.
Speaker 1: Both of those guys are doing a good job defensively,
Speaker 1: but they're not elite defensive players. But both of those
Speaker 1: defenses were elite. Why Because they were able to construct
Speaker 1: through coaching and a few pieces of good defensive personnel
Speaker 1: and effort, execution, intention to detail for an entire season,
Speaker 1: those two teams built elite defenses. It's a lot easier
Speaker 1: to do that than the opposite. If you've got it
Speaker 1: is really, really difficult to replicate what Luka doncicch does
Speaker 1: in half court. You can't just scheme like Eric Spolser
Speaker 1: can't turn Tyler Harrow into Lukadancic. Sorry, right. So like
Speaker 1: for me, the ability in the slow down half court
Speaker 1: environment to consistently generate quality shots for yourself and your teammates.
Speaker 1: That to me is the number one trade, I look
Speaker 1: at one of the valuating basketball players in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: specifically versatility. What that means is different types of matchups
Speaker 1: require different forms of offensive attack. So Anthony Edwards, for instance,
Speaker 1: through the first two rounds, looked like one of the
Speaker 1: best offensive players in the world. The Dallas Denver started
Speaker 1: doubling him. Towards the end of that series, he kind
Speaker 1: of crumbled a bit. Then Dallas presents some rim protection
Speaker 1: and perimeter athleticism issues, he completely crumbles, right, So I
Speaker 1: shouldn't say completely crumbles. He was pretty good in the
Speaker 1: last couple of games, but like he was pretty bad
Speaker 1: overall in the series, right. So to me, the versatility
Speaker 1: element says, regardless of which type of opponent I play against,
Speaker 1: can I consistently generate quality shots for myself and my teammates?
Speaker 1: And that to me comes down to like, can you
Speaker 1: attack in different ways? Can you function both as a
Speaker 1: playmaker and as a score if you need to? Can
Speaker 1: you deal with hyper aggressive defensive schemes? Can you attack
Speaker 1: as an individual in different ways, like out of the post,
Speaker 1: out of ISO, out of pick and roll. Can you
Speaker 1: beat small guys and big guys? Can you beat strong
Speaker 1: guys and long guys. Right, those are all the different
Speaker 1: types of versatility elements offensively that I factor in there.
Speaker 1: But half court shot creation is unquestionably the number one
Speaker 1: thing the list. Number two I put size, strength, and athleticism.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, you get into these
Speaker 1: playoff environments, it gets super damn physical and being bigger,
Speaker 1: stronger and faster than people matters last year or this year. Looks,
Speaker 1: Look at Luca He's bigger and stronger than the vast
Speaker 1: majority of the perimeter players in the league. Right, Nicole
Speaker 1: Jokicic bigger and stronger than the vast majority of big
Speaker 1: guys in the league. Steph Curry Again, every time you
Speaker 1: look at Steph Curry, he is the exception that proves
Speaker 1: the rule, both in NBA history and in a recent context.
Speaker 1: Anything Steph does, it just doesn't make sense in the
Speaker 1: big picture. So you just kind of have to pick
Speaker 1: Steph up and put him off to the side and
Speaker 1: discuss him separately. Right, We've been consistent about that on
Speaker 1: this show. Giannis bigger, stronger and faster than every forward
Speaker 1: in the league. Right, Lebron James in twenty twenty, bigger, faster,
Speaker 1: stronger than most forwards in the league except for Giannis
Speaker 1: right twenty nineteen, Kawhi Leonard bigger and stronger than most
Speaker 1: forwards in the league. Right eighteen and twenty seventeen, Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant seven foot shooter, He's just taller than everybody. Right.
Speaker 1: And then obviously the Steph piece, which is weird. Twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen Lebron twenty fifteen, Steph again, twenty fourteen Finals MVP
Speaker 1: was Kawhi. That's also a weird team. They're like the
Speaker 1: team version of Steph. You just pulled them out and
Speaker 1: remove them from the equation, right, Lebron. The years before that,
Speaker 1: Dirk was seven feet tall. Kobe Bryant was one of
Speaker 1: the freaky athletic two guards in the league. Right. So like, again,
Speaker 1: you have to have real physical tools unless you're Steph
Speaker 1: Curry to win an NBA history. That's the second piece.
Speaker 1: Third piece I put defensive versatility. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of problems that get presented in playoff series that only
Speaker 1: superstar defensive talents can handle, right, Like, we've seen this
Speaker 1: a lot over the years. But like when you have
Speaker 1: a superstar like Giannis that could show on a Devin
Speaker 1: Booker floater bait him into a pass and then recover
Speaker 1: an erace eight and at the rim. That is a
Speaker 1: play that Giannis and maybe two other guys in the
Speaker 1: world can make, and it won them the finals game.
Speaker 1: Like that is the type of defensive versatility that can
Speaker 1: shine through in a big way. Lebron James is a
Speaker 1: guy like this. Kawhi Leonard is a guy like this.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is a guy like this. Right. To me,
Speaker 1: defensive versatility the ability to impact the game defensively in
Speaker 1: multiple ways. Lebron James in twenty twenty switched on to
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray in the tail end of the series and
Speaker 1: shut him down, Like he can't do that anymore. But
Speaker 1: when he was thirty five he could do that, right.
Speaker 1: That was a huge piece of his defensive versatility in
Speaker 1: his way to impact the game. He could be a
Speaker 1: backline guy, he could be an on ball guy, right,
Speaker 1: you know like that? That, to me is an important
Speaker 1: piece of that in a vacuum evaluation of players, But
Speaker 1: it ranks lower than the other two pieces because it's
Speaker 1: easier as a front office to get a Yokich and
Speaker 1: get an Aaron Gordon than it is, in my opinion
Speaker 1: to get a Yannis and then to get a high
Speaker 1: level offensive player to compliment him. And so for me,
Speaker 1: that's why I I ranked that half court shot creation
Speaker 1: piece number one. I think it's just the hardest thing
Speaker 1: to replicate on a team wide basis. Whereas defensive versatility
Speaker 1: can be a roster strength and it can be like elite,
Speaker 1: half court shock creation has only been a roster strength
Speaker 1: with the twenty fourteen Spurs. Like generally speaking, you need
Speaker 1: a superstar offensive player that can do that to address
Speaker 1: that problem. So again, hopefully that answers that question for
Speaker 1: you guys. Those are the rankings of the three things
Speaker 1: I look at in a vacuum in a in bragging
Speaker 1: rights and primary looking at production and team success and
Speaker 1: who just gets to brag for that particular season. Why
Speaker 1: does everyone just cut Giannis out of the best player
Speaker 1: in the world chat? Now, he's still on part with
Speaker 1: these guys. To me, I think he's in that tier,
Speaker 1: but I think he's firmly below Luca and Nicole Jokic
Speaker 1: for the exact same reasons I just explained. I don't
Speaker 1: think he's I think he's a good half court shot creator,
Speaker 1: but he's not in the same stratosphere as a half
Speaker 1: court shock creator as Jokic and Luca some solid analysis
Speaker 1: as usual, but the man which you jumped off Jokich
Speaker 1: as the best player in the world is a bit
Speaker 1: prisoner of the moment. Joker's shooting performance the decline, as
Speaker 1: you put it, against the Wolves was because they were
Speaker 1: built to defeat him and have the favorable matchups to
Speaker 1: wear him down. Conversely, the MAVs have matchup advantages over
Speaker 1: the Wolves, and the truth of that out. You don't
Speaker 1: lose the title a best player in the league because
Speaker 1: your team loses in the playoffs in seven games, while
Speaker 1: you still perform very well. A larger sample size is
Speaker 1: needed otherwise the moniker becomes whoever plays best and wins
Speaker 1: in their title run. If next year Luca dominates and
Speaker 1: is better than Nicola, then I think it's fair to
Speaker 1: then hand him the belt, as Bill Simmons would put it,
Speaker 1: as the best player in the world. But right now
Speaker 1: it's a bit premature. One of your great strengths as
Speaker 1: a basketball analysts is that you generally are not reactionary.
Speaker 1: Don't get caught up in this one. Let's see if
Speaker 1: Luca can win the title and MVP how can the
Speaker 1: best player in the league not have at least one
Speaker 1: MVP and dominate once more in the playoffs before we
Speaker 1: declare him the best player over Nicole Jokic, who has
Speaker 1: had years of sustained excellence. A couple of things. What
Speaker 1: I said right off the top, your criteria for best
Speaker 1: player in the world is probably different. It's clearly different
Speaker 1: than mine. That's okay. It's okay that I have different criteria. So, like,
Speaker 1: I don't care that Luca doesn't have an MVP. Regular
Speaker 1: season MVP to me is like, for me personally, is
Speaker 1: an achievement that I almost just don't care about. Like,
Speaker 1: it's just the problem with regular season MVP is it's
Speaker 1: so much based on media narratives, and like I believe
Speaker 1: Jokic deserves the MVPs he has, I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: undercut the accomplishment. Just regular season MVP. It just doesn't
Speaker 1: matter to me. There's too many examples like Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: winning it, like James Harden winning it. There's just too
Speaker 1: many Joel Embiid winning it. There's just so many examples
Speaker 1: of a guy that's clearly not the best player in
Speaker 1: the world winning MVP, and that to me, just makes
Speaker 1: it really difficult to tot to tie much success to
Speaker 1: that accomplishment. Even when Yannis won MVP in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: I didn't think he was better than Lebron. So like
Speaker 1: to me, regular season MVP doesn't factor in. If you
Speaker 1: factor in regular season MVP, more power to you. I
Speaker 1: don't care about that. Joker's shooting performance. The decline, as
Speaker 1: you put it against the Wolves, was because they were
Speaker 1: built to defeat him. That's not true. He shot poorly
Speaker 1: all season. Last year. In the regular season, he was
Speaker 1: one point one to seven points per jump shot. This
Speaker 1: year he was one point zero one. That's a what
Speaker 1: sixteen percent decline, So a substantial decline in Yokic's jump
Speaker 1: shooting from last season to this year. In the regular season,
Speaker 1: last year, in the postseason, for the entire postseason, he
Speaker 1: averaged one point two to one points per jump shot.
Speaker 1: In this postseason he was below zero point nine, so
Speaker 1: massive sample from start of training camp through to what
Speaker 1: he got eliminated in the second round. He wasn't as
Speaker 1: good as a jump shooter. That's just a fact. He
Speaker 1: did decline on that front. He also was not as
Speaker 1: good defensively as he was last year. That is a fact.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is look at the fact
Speaker 1: that they couldn't get stops against Minnesota, a mediocre offense
Speaker 1: when it mattered in big games, had a one sixteen
Speaker 1: defensive rating against Minnesota in those four losses. So like
Speaker 1: he just won as good and I think that has
Speaker 1: to be factored in there as far as like the
Speaker 1: he needs to have sustained success for multiple years in
Speaker 1: the postseason. By that logic, Jokic doesn't deserve it because
Speaker 1: he only did it for one year in the postseason.
Speaker 1: Luca's doing it for his first year in the postseason.
Speaker 1: To me, I'm giving it to Luca because in this
Speaker 1: particular postseason run, Luka Doncic played better basketball and achieved more,
Speaker 1: and so for this season he gets the bragging rights.
Speaker 1: In a vacuum, I still lean Jokic a little bit,
Speaker 1: and we'll see how I feel about that when we
Speaker 1: get into the summer. But for me, in a vacuum,
Speaker 1: if I was GM of the Charlotte Hornets and I
Speaker 1: had the number one pick going into a full NBA
Speaker 1: wide four hundred and fifty player draft, I'm probably taking
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic first. That to me is separate from the
Speaker 1: bragging rights title, which to me, Luca has at this
Speaker 1: point because he just took the team that beat didn't
Speaker 1: just beat Denver, but shut down their offense, which is
Speaker 1: Jokic's strength. Luca eviscerated them. He averaged twelve additional points
Speaker 1: per one hundred possessions against that Minnesota defense than Jokic did.
Speaker 1: He deserves it for now in terms of bragging rights.
Speaker 1: That hopefully will kind of explain where I stand on
Speaker 1: those things. And you're right, like kicking me kicking a
Speaker 1: player off of the vacuum list, that's gonna take a
Speaker 1: lot more sample size for me. But the bragging rights
Speaker 1: list is very much a year to year thing. I
Speaker 1: had Luka Dancic tenth in my bragging rights list last year. Tenth.
Speaker 1: Do I think lucas the tenth best player in the world. No,
Speaker 1: But he missed the playoffs last year, and Jimmy Butler
Speaker 1: took his team to the finals, Jason Tatum took his
Speaker 1: team in the Eastern Conference finals. Lebron James took his
Speaker 1: team to the Eastern Conference Final. Like, all those guys
Speaker 1: accomplished more last year, so they just were higher in
Speaker 1: their back in the bragging rights list. For me, I
Speaker 1: don't have a question. I just want to say I'm
Speaker 1: a real hoophead. And when I found you a few
Speaker 1: years back, when you were just getting this thing going,
Speaker 1: I was super excited to hear someone talk about the
Speaker 1: game in a way that I had been waiting for
Speaker 1: and to see how far you've come. It's just great
Speaker 1: to see. I tell everyone about you, Bro. Thanks, thanks man,
Speaker 1: keep doing you, Bro. This comment meant a lot to me.
Speaker 1: When I started this show, I had this, you know,
Speaker 1: I had this like belief system in place where, like
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about the game the way I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about it. But I was worried that
Speaker 1: it might not perform super well because it's a little
Speaker 1: more niche, right, It's a little bit more in the weeds.
Speaker 1: And I wasn't willing to do the stuff that so
Speaker 1: many other shows out there do in terms of like
Speaker 1: just countless lebron MJ debates and who's under more pressure
Speaker 1: and like all those like classic first takey type of headlines. Right,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to do that, and I was really
Speaker 1: nervous that I had to have a hard time getting
Speaker 1: the show off the ground because of that and to
Speaker 1: see me start this show and to not compromise on
Speaker 1: any of that stuff, Like does my behind the scenes
Speaker 1: package and make thumbnails and titles that are a little clickbait? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's just smart business. I've never built a show
Speaker 1: like that. That's just smart business that they do that.
Speaker 1: But like, to me, the actual show, I've never compromised on.
Speaker 1: I've only talked about the game that I want about
Speaker 1: the I've only talked about the game the way that
Speaker 1: I want to talk about it, and to get to
Speaker 1: see it have success and to see where we've gotten
Speaker 1: to is has just like literally been everything to me
Speaker 1: because that means that my vision for what the show
Speaker 1: should be like was actually capable of being a real
Speaker 1: show that actually had a little bit of a following.
Speaker 1: And so what it means to me is that there's
Speaker 1: a lot of you guys out there that love basketball
Speaker 1: as much as I do, and that is that's that
Speaker 1: that to me is incredible because I love the game
Speaker 1: so much it's literally gone everything that I have came
Speaker 1: from basketball, Like I got my school paid for by basketball.
Speaker 1: A lot of my travel over my life has been
Speaker 1: because of basketball and understanding of the game. Most of
Speaker 1: it comes from playing basketball, right, Like every my love
Speaker 1: of basketball has given me everything I have and so
Speaker 1: like to see that get returned in the form of
Speaker 1: the support of this show is just meant everything to me.
Speaker 1: And to hear comments like that and to know that
Speaker 1: you guys wanted to hear analysis like this, it makes
Speaker 1: me feel vindicated for believing that this is the way
Speaker 1: that the game should be talked about. So just thank
Speaker 1: you all for supporting the show. And like again, I
Speaker 1: just I can't put into words how much I appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys for helping the show get to the point
Speaker 1: where it's at right now. Hey, Jason, love watching your analysis.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask, with all of these rumors the
Speaker 1: Warriors trading Wiggins, do you think it's the right move
Speaker 1: with all these elite guards looking in the west, to
Speaker 1: give up on the only point of attack defender who
Speaker 1: has been able to keep the force of Luca at
Speaker 1: bay Or should they put him in the Jada McDaniels
Speaker 1: lou Dort role, move him to two and add a
Speaker 1: big who can shoot to add size. So I've seen
Speaker 1: a lot of Warriors fans talk about potentially trading Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins and I disagree in the sense that for two reasons. One,
Speaker 1: I think Andrew Wiggins' ability to defend on the perimeter
Speaker 1: is a profoundly valuable trade his athleticism in general is
Speaker 1: profoundly valuable trade. And lastly, for all of his struggles,
Speaker 1: his trade value is not very high. So it's not
Speaker 1: likely that you can actually get much back for Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins that would replace the things that he's pretty elite at.
Speaker 1: So I would look for moves on the margins, and
Speaker 1: I would try to not include Andrew Wiggins as far
Speaker 1: as playing him at the two. I think that you
Speaker 1: need another shot creator, and so if you moved him
Speaker 1: at the two, it to me that would require you
Speaker 1: to have a three out there that can really run offense.
Speaker 1: What you can't do is go back into next season
Speaker 1: where Steph's the only guy on the team that can
Speaker 1: create his own shot. That to me would be a disaster.
Speaker 1: How often do you attend live games and are you
Speaker 1: planning to attend the finals? Somel across your vance's postseason.
Speaker 1: Love the work you put into them, so not going
Speaker 1: to the finals, but we are planning on trying to
Speaker 1: do a ten more games next year. I think our
Speaker 1: plan is to at least go to the Ncason Tournament
Speaker 1: next year. My guess is in the long run we'll
Speaker 1: go to more games, like when we talk about like
Speaker 1: five ten years in the future. But so much of
Speaker 1: it just has to do with like the volumes growing
Speaker 1: really fast, and we're still kind of working through all that.
Speaker 1: Like I'm still recording the show in my guest bedroom,
Speaker 1: so like we'll see how that turns out in the
Speaker 1: long run. Right, So, Like again I right now this
Speaker 1: is kind of the format that works. We will go
Speaker 1: to more events, not going to the finals this year,
Speaker 1: but in the long run, we'll see if we end
Speaker 1: up at more of that stuff. What did you think
Speaker 1: of Sam Presci's comments on trading for Gordon Hayward. Do
Speaker 1: you believe more gms? Do you believe more gms should
Speaker 1: take accountability? Like this more great content, keep up the
Speaker 1: great work. So the comment from Sam Presci basically just
Speaker 1: said he missed on that Gordon Hayward trade. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I appreciated about it, there's this I
Speaker 1: didn't even really realize this until like started in this business.
Speaker 1: There's this belief. I've seen it from fans and it's
Speaker 1: like this, there's this expectation that basketball is just easy
Speaker 1: to figure out and that the solution is just obviously
Speaker 1: right in front of you, and that you should just
Speaker 1: you know, if you make a mistake, it's a sign
Speaker 1: that you're incompetent. I could not disagree more Like sports
Speaker 1: has such a variability element to it. Right as a
Speaker 1: Lakers fan, I experience this personally all year long. Ruey
Speaker 1: hatch Murrow is better than Torrian Prince, and I advocated
Speaker 1: all year long to play Ruey more than Torrian Prince.
Speaker 1: And it was the right decision all year long until
Speaker 1: the Denver series when Rui was terrible and Torrian was good. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: is that just the weirdness of basketball? Or am I incompetent?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like, that's where it gets
Speaker 1: really tricky, right, Like, Sam pressI is regarded as one
Speaker 1: of the best gms in the league, and he can
Speaker 1: make a mistake. I think he was just looking at
Speaker 1: a player that he could potentially slot in for Josh
Speaker 1: Giddy in those lineups as kind of like a connective
Speaker 1: piece that would just be a higher level offensive player,
Speaker 1: and it turned out that it was better for him
Speaker 1: to go with Isaiah Joe or Aaron Wiggins or even
Speaker 1: maybe even some big looks with Jay will Right, it
Speaker 1: just turned out it wasn't the right move, right, But
Speaker 1: you got to take You gotta take chances, you got
Speaker 1: to take shots, you got to take risks. And I
Speaker 1: always will advocate for people doing that sort of thing,
Speaker 1: and inherently there are mistakes that can be made in
Speaker 1: those processes. Hey, Jason, what have we learned this playoffs?
Speaker 1: About which types of defensive players are the most valuable
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders, wings or rim protector centers. How does that
Speaker 1: influence team building? Thanks so much for all that you do. Again,
Speaker 1: for me, it's the versatility element. It's the guys like
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon that can guard on the back line, defensive
Speaker 1: rebound and guard on the perimeter. Jason Tatum can do
Speaker 1: that too, right. PJ. Washington has showed some of that.
Speaker 1: It is the versatile defensive players. Derek Lively is a
Speaker 1: great example. It is the versatile defensive players that can
Speaker 1: do both that bring the most value. A big, strong
Speaker 1: athlete that you can hang around inside and defend on
Speaker 1: the perimeter is by far the most valuable type of
Speaker 1: defender that you can have. Do you think that the
Speaker 1: Bucks are still top tier contenders. I feel their entire
Speaker 1: defensive system revolved around what Brook Lopez could do and drop,
Speaker 1: which was only enabled by elite screen navigation by Drew.
Speaker 1: Without that, Lopez's defensive flaws are magnified, and I don't
Speaker 1: think they have the assets to fix the issue. I
Speaker 1: know the offense has been poor, but all the pieces
Speaker 1: are there. Giannis just needs to be more familiar without
Speaker 1: a role with Dame. Agree with everything you said. I
Speaker 1: agree that the point of attack defense was an issue
Speaker 1: in terms of complimenting Lopez and drop coverage one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Agree about Giannis and Dame just kind of needing more
Speaker 1: reps figuring out how to play together. I would use
Speaker 1: Dallas as an example of optimism if I was a
Speaker 1: Milwaukee fan. Dallas missed the playoffs last year. But they
Speaker 1: have two superstars or two superstar and a star that
Speaker 1: both compliment each other really well, and they made some
Speaker 1: tweaks to the roster. Now they're in the finals. That's
Speaker 1: what you got to look at. Look at if you're Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: you have Giannis and Tenna Kombo, the third best player
Speaker 1: in the world in a vacuum. In my opinion, and
Speaker 1: you have Damian Lillard, a guy is in that like
Speaker 1: top twelve, top thirteen, right, so you are capable of
Speaker 1: making a similar pivot. And all it is is you
Speaker 1: got to hit on a veteran minimum signing or two.
Speaker 1: You got to hit on some sort of other move
Speaker 1: in the summer, whether it's a sign and trade or
Speaker 1: it's a mid level exception deal, and you got to
Speaker 1: hit on a trade or two between the offseason and
Speaker 1: on the deadline. If you hit on those deals, you
Speaker 1: have the top tier talent to build an elite team
Speaker 1: around them. You just have to make the appropriate tweaks.
Speaker 1: To me, I would go in on athleticism. I think
Speaker 1: this is a team that needs to be very, very
Speaker 1: fast and long and athletic. I think that, especially since
Speaker 1: brook Lopez like that was part of the issue last year.
Speaker 1: We're just too slow everywhere. And I would pivot in
Speaker 1: the direction towards length and athleticism, especially considering to get
Speaker 1: out of the conference, You're gonna have to deal with
Speaker 1: the Knicks team, which is gonna come at you with
Speaker 1: overwhelming layers of physicality and size and length, and Boston's
Speaker 1: gonna come at you with a ton of speed and
Speaker 1: spread you out on the perimeter to survive that conference.
Speaker 1: I think they need to get faster on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Do you believe that it would be better to include
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt into the trade package if you're getting a role
Speaker 1: player like me, or if you're getting a player like
Speaker 1: Mikhale Bridges rather than trading him for another guard like Dejonte.
Speaker 1: I feel like he's the third most, third or fourth
Speaker 1: most valuable player on the team. One hundred percent agree
Speaker 1: in the sense that he feels a very specific need.
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt is the only elite perimeter defender that the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers have under roster control, So if you're
Speaker 1: going to include him in a trade, you damn well
Speaker 1: better get back a real perimeter defender. I personally would
Speaker 1: like to have at least two. If you look through
Speaker 1: the let's just look at the conference finalists. Minnesota had
Speaker 1: two of them, right, They had Jada McDaniels Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: just in the starting lineup. Right. If you look at
Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks, they had two of them, Derek Jones
Speaker 1: Junior PJ. Washington. I even argue that Kyrie can guard
Speaker 1: on the perimeter, right, you can say the same thing
Speaker 1: about Mike Conley. For the record, Boston has four of
Speaker 1: them in the starting lineup Indiana. Even if you look
Speaker 1: at Andrew Nemhard and AARONI. Smith, those are two very
Speaker 1: two very good perimeter defensive players. Siakam is a guy
Speaker 1: who can guard on the perimeter as well, So like
Speaker 1: you got to have multiple guys that can guard on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. So like I would, I would if I
Speaker 1: was the Lakers, I would not include Jared Vanderbilt unless
Speaker 1: it was a team demanding including Jared Vanderbilt and you
Speaker 1: were getting back a high level perimeter defender that I
Speaker 1: prefer to keep him, and I'd prefer to use trade
Speaker 1: chips like Ruya Chimura gave Vincent other mid level contracts
Speaker 1: that do not involve including Vanderbilt, and then I but
Speaker 1: I like the idea of going after Michel Bridges, a
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant, a de Jontey Murray, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But I'd try to keep Vanderbilt if you can do
Speaker 1: you eat before and or after you play a game
Speaker 1: of basketball. So what do you go for from James?
Speaker 1: I prefer to eat two to three hours before I
Speaker 1: had a late night run that I played on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: a private run here in Tucson, and I went to
Speaker 1: dinner with my wife beforehand, and we had dinner at
Speaker 1: like six point thirty and the run started at like eight,
Speaker 1: and I didn't eat my food until like seven, and
Speaker 1: it felt like I was playing with a cannonball in
Speaker 1: my stomach and it was literally the worst. So like,
Speaker 1: preferably a long time before, preferably lighter. I prefer to
Speaker 1: have stuff like like usually just like some rice and
Speaker 1: chicken like that. Chipotle is like the best pregame meal
Speaker 1: of all time because it's just rice and chicken, right.
Speaker 1: I just don't get beans in it for me personally,
Speaker 1: But like again, like that, it's really just something light
Speaker 1: two three hours before. I'm a big believer in loading
Speaker 1: up the day before. I do a lot of like
Speaker 1: heavy protein carbloating in the day before to try to
Speaker 1: prepare for playing the next day. Hey, I'm wondering about
Speaker 1: your perspective on the Star Wars franchise. I like some
Speaker 1: of the shows that have come out, but I also
Speaker 1: feel like some are getting away from what Star Wars
Speaker 1: was originally about. I think they should release less content
Speaker 1: and focus more on quality rather than spinning out a
Speaker 1: new show every few months. What's your take on where
Speaker 1: they should go. I don't think that there's a I
Speaker 1: don't think that they're inundating us with content. It's not
Speaker 1: like there's a ton of it. I actually think that,
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to dedicated teams, like, as long
Speaker 1: as there's oversight, dedicated teams can do a quality job.
Speaker 1: It's not like they're cutting corners there. To me, it's
Speaker 1: more just focusing on the right kind of storytelling. To me,
Speaker 1: Star Wars what makes it great is there's a very
Speaker 1: basic good versus evil and then there's deep lore building.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing that makes all those shows great, right,
Speaker 1: Like what is Game of Throne? What makes Game of
Speaker 1: Thrones great? You know who the villains are. You know
Speaker 1: you're rooting against Sercy the whole time. You know you're
Speaker 1: rooting against you know, uh Ramsey Snow, you know you're
Speaker 1: rooting against the Night King, right Like, you have your
Speaker 1: clear antagonists and there's an obvious like good versus evil
Speaker 1: type of thing going on, and then there's deep lore building.
Speaker 1: Everything is connected. And Disney has just gotten really sloppy
Speaker 1: with the lore, like shitting all over the Skywalker Skywalker
Speaker 1: storyline by making it about Palpatine at the end, Like
Speaker 1: they literally destroyed the entire Skywalker storyline by reincarnating or
Speaker 1: saving Palpatine and making it about Ray and Palpatine. Right
Speaker 1: like that that was stupid. That was that was shitting
Speaker 1: all over the lore. Right, they stupid things like for
Speaker 1: cool special effects, they'll have the like the Millennium Falcon,
Speaker 1: hyperspace jumping in between buildings like in Revenge of the
Speaker 1: Sitty or in Rise of Skywalker when literally in a
Speaker 1: New Hope. In the very first Star Wars movie in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, there's a scene where Han Solo's talking
Speaker 1: to Luke and Luke goes, why don't you just jump
Speaker 1: the light speed? And Hank goes, if I don't calculate first,
Speaker 1: there will be bits of us scattered all over the galaxy,
Speaker 1: like because if you travel at the speed of light
Speaker 1: and you run into something, something bad would happen. So like,
Speaker 1: why is it that that was established in nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: And then it's like, oh, but it'd be cool for
Speaker 1: CGI if the Millennium Falcon just appeared right in between
Speaker 1: some buildings, flying around like that's the kind of stuff
Speaker 1: that Disney's dropped the ball on. If they get back
Speaker 1: into the deep story building and into the lore and
Speaker 1: into the good versus evil, I think it could work. Which,
Speaker 1: by the way I saw. I've seen some people dislike Ahsoka.
Speaker 1: I enjoyed Ahsoka. It's a slow start. Season one was slow,
Speaker 1: but it's no different than Game of Throne Season one
Speaker 1: was really slow, right, give that story some time. Theron's
Speaker 1: a really interesting character. They're gonna keep building him out.
Speaker 1: There's all that interesting stuff going on with Balen Skull
Speaker 1: and Ahsoka and all them in that other galaxy. Like Ahsoka,
Speaker 1: Season two I think is gonna be more fast paced
Speaker 1: and a little bit more interesting. Right. This Acolyte series
Speaker 1: is something I'm super super excited for. It dives back
Speaker 1: into the good versus evil thing I saw. I had
Speaker 1: this theory that I put out on my other podcasts.
Speaker 1: I have another podcast. It's called The Two Sun's Podcast.
Speaker 1: You can see the link for it, or not the link,
Speaker 1: but the logo for it right there. I do it
Speaker 1: with my buddy Luke here in Tucson. We cover all
Speaker 1: that stuff, TV series, movies, all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Star Wars is a major like Star Wars is my
Speaker 1: favorite bit of nonfiction, so that's what we spend a
Speaker 1: good amount of our time on. But like, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be covering every single episode of The Acolyte starting next week.
Speaker 1: We're gonna cover every single episode of House of the Dragon.
Speaker 1: We're recording tomorrow an episode that's covering the end of
Speaker 1: Bad Batch as well as we're doing We're gonna do it.
Speaker 1: There's a book that we both just read called Revin,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna do a like kind of a summary
Speaker 1: action to the Revin book. That's obviously legends, but it's
Speaker 1: another Star Wars, a bit of Star Wars content. So, like,
Speaker 1: make sure you check out the Two Sons podcast hop
Speaker 1: over there. If you guys would subscribe and support that show,
Speaker 1: I'd really appreciate that. But I was talking about The
Speaker 1: Acolyte with my buddy Luke, and in that show, I
Speaker 1: was hoping for them to get into some of the
Speaker 1: history of the Sith, which is by far my most
Speaker 1: interesting element of the Star Wars universe. I'm really fascinated
Speaker 1: by Palpatine's a grand plan to overthrow the Republic, right.
Speaker 1: I find it super fascinating. It dates all the way
Speaker 1: back to Darth Baine destroying the Sith, going into hiding
Speaker 1: and trying to take over the galaxy with subterfuge rather
Speaker 1: than through force of arms. Right, that's if you've ever
Speaker 1: read the Darth Baine books, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: But the Acolyte, I think is going to target that concept.
Speaker 1: And I had a theory about that, and then I
Speaker 1: saw an interview yesterday that the Star Wars Instagram feed
Speaker 1: released where Dave Filoni was interviewing the director and he's like, so,
Speaker 1: tell me about the Accolte, and she's like, I've always
Speaker 1: been fascinated by the Sith and the idea of an
Speaker 1: apprentice who crazy their master's power and needs to go
Speaker 1: find a new apprentice so that they can do that.
Speaker 1: And I was like, yes, Like this is exactly what
Speaker 1: I want from a Star Wars show. So I'm very
Speaker 1: very excited for the Acolyte. I most importantly now that
Speaker 1: Dave Filoni is their creative director. Dave Filoni is someone
Speaker 1: that I think has the appropriate amount of respect for
Speaker 1: what makes Star Wars great, and so I think that
Speaker 1: we can kind of take the twenty fifteen stretch to
Speaker 1: now in all of the stuff that they botched with
Speaker 1: the sequel trilogy and some of the weird stuff they've done.
Speaker 1: I think we can kind of just put that to
Speaker 1: the side. Now Dave Filoni has real authority to fix stuff.
Speaker 1: Let's see if Dave Filoni can can write the ship here.
Speaker 1: You said early in the season you would not change
Speaker 1: the Nuggets starting five. After losing to the Wolves, do
Speaker 1: you still believe it should be those five, and what
Speaker 1: changes would you make overall to the team come back
Speaker 1: better next season. I would try to run it back.
Speaker 1: They were up twenty in Game seven, you win that game.
Speaker 1: I think they beat Dallas and I think they're in
Speaker 1: the finals, and I think they would have beat Boston.
Speaker 1: Don't overthink it. You got a bad matchup and you
Speaker 1: still had him on the ropes. You just blew it.
Speaker 1: And Jamal Murray didn't play well. He was also injured,
Speaker 1: and Yokic had a bad shooting season and wasn't as
Speaker 1: good defensively. I think both of those guys are gonna
Speaker 1: come back way better next year. I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: come back as the hungry team. So like I wouldn't
Speaker 1: tweak anything that said, there's some of the realities of
Speaker 1: the roster situation, It's very possible that Contavious called what Pope,
Speaker 1: ends up being poached by another team. We'll see if
Speaker 1: they do. Then obviously what you're sliding like a Christian
Speaker 1: Brown into that spot. But I'll be curious to see
Speaker 1: if they are able to kind of replace him with
Speaker 1: a more of like a league average type of replacement player.
Speaker 1: That said, in terms of who I should who I
Speaker 1: think they should be looking to add, I think the
Speaker 1: main piece that they need is they need another offensive
Speaker 1: player that can compromise the defense through dribble penetration. One
Speaker 1: of the issues for Denver was they initiate through two
Speaker 1: man game and through Jokic's ability to impose himself physic
Speaker 1: in the post Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards erased Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray from that series for the most part, and Nikole
Speaker 1: Jokic was just getting overwhelmed by size on the inside.
Speaker 1: Another way to compromise the defense is through dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: Denver just didn't have a guy who can do that.
Speaker 1: Last year they had Bruce Brown. They didn't have that
Speaker 1: this year. So, like I would be looking for an
Speaker 1: athletic guard that can beat somebody off the dribble, because
Speaker 1: if you can beat somebody off the dribble, that's just
Speaker 1: another way for them to have some more resilience on offense.
Speaker 1: What's up with the sunglasses new style? So I've had
Speaker 1: sunglasses on for a couple of these episodes, just holding
Speaker 1: my hair back. To make a long story short, I've
Speaker 1: never had hair this long, and I'm trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how to do it. It's my hair super curly
Speaker 1: thanks to my mom, and I have literally no idea
Speaker 1: what to do with it. So I'm learning the sunglasses.
Speaker 1: They just hold it back for right now. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'll end up. I'm not going to get
Speaker 1: into the specifics, but I'll try a few more things.
Speaker 1: But something that's like something about me. I am very
Speaker 1: much a practically minded person. Practical like, I'm obsessed with practicality.
Speaker 1: I want things to be convenient. I like things to
Speaker 1: be easy, and my hair is irritating the shit out
Speaker 1: of me. I've been growing it out for like nine months, though,
Speaker 1: so I'm not about to cut it right away. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna try to see if I can make it work.
Speaker 1: But like if it's a few months from now and
Speaker 1: I'm still struggling, like I'm gonna cut it just because,
Speaker 1: like I hate dealing with inconvenient shit like constantly having
Speaker 1: to do stuff with my hair. But yeah, the sunglasses,
Speaker 1: I'm just putting them on my head to hold my
Speaker 1: hair back. I'm aware that it's tacky. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure it out. Just bear with me as I try
Speaker 1: to work through this new phase of hair problems. You
Speaker 1: touched on a couple of videos ago that every series
Speaker 1: should be looked at in a vacuum. How do you
Speaker 1: think the Lakers would have fared if they would have
Speaker 1: been the eighth seed instead of the seventh. Would they
Speaker 1: have dethroned okay See Dallas in Minnesota? I think they
Speaker 1: would have beat I think they would have beat okay See.
Speaker 1: I think that they presented similar challenges to Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: that Dallas did, right. I think that specifically, one of
Speaker 1: the things that the Lakers could have done to Okase's
Speaker 1: front line that even Dallas couldn't do is Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: can just bully his way around the basket against that
Speaker 1: front line, and I think that that would have caused
Speaker 1: a lot of problems. I think the Lakers would have
Speaker 1: beat Okay. See. By the way, I was consistent about
Speaker 1: that all season. I thought the Lakers were the fifth
Speaker 1: best team going into the postseason run, and I thought
Speaker 1: that they should have. I thought that they would have
Speaker 1: beat Oklahoma City. Dallas is tough. Dallas is a matchup
Speaker 1: that the Lakers have struggled with pretty consistently over the
Speaker 1: last two years. I would have picked the Lakers over
Speaker 1: Dallas if Jared Vanderbilt was healthy, but he was not.
Speaker 1: He wasn't healthy. So with Jared, because Jared Vanderbilt was
Speaker 1: the one guy the Lakers had that could actually bother
Speaker 1: Luca kind of fits into that big, strong forward type
Speaker 1: that you need, like an Aaron Gordon, like a Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum type of player. But Jared Vanderbilt was out, so
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers would have just lost to Dallas. Now,
Speaker 1: in a to see world where Jared Vanderbilt was healthy,
Speaker 1: I think they would have beat OKAC. It would have
Speaker 1: been roughly a coin flip to beat Dallas. I probably
Speaker 1: would have picked the Lakers, but it would have been close.
Speaker 1: And then Minnesota, I think the Lakers would have beat
Speaker 1: Minnesota because I think Minnesota would have struggled against the
Speaker 1: Laker defense for the exact same reasons that they struggled
Speaker 1: against the Dallas defense. But the Dallas matchup is just
Speaker 1: really tough. The Lakers have struggled with Luca pretty consistently,
Speaker 1: and because Vanderbilt was injured, I think even if they
Speaker 1: were the eight c they would have lost to Dallas.
Speaker 1: A lot of Team USA players didn't go on a
Speaker 1: deep run in the playoffs, for example Lebron, Steph kd,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, Embiid. Will that rest help Team USA? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: not just the rest, but also the competitive motivation. Not
Speaker 1: being able to compete for a championship will make them
Speaker 1: want to compete for this Olympic trophy. I have a
Speaker 1: feeling that the Team USA is going to go on
Speaker 1: a crazy run. I think that they're going to dominate,
Speaker 1: and I think they're going to win the gold. I
Speaker 1: think that this is going to be an opportunity for
Speaker 1: the American basketball players to prove that even though the
Speaker 1: world is catching up, that as a country individually, they
Speaker 1: are still head and shoulders above the rest of the
Speaker 1: teams individually. Now, if you I think if we combined
Speaker 1: all the players of the world into a single world
Speaker 1: team against USA, that's where It gets tricky, right because
Speaker 1: now we're talking about Luca Jokic gianness like that. That
Speaker 1: could get really tough, really fast, shake shake Gilders. Alexander's
Speaker 1: on that team, right, But like and that would get complicated.
Speaker 1: But in terms of individual countries, no country in the
Speaker 1: world can hold a candle to a Team USA, and
Speaker 1: I think they're going to demonstrate that this year. Should
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards start over Jason Tatum and Team USA, No,
Speaker 1: I think Jason Tatum should play the two. I would
Speaker 1: go Steph Tatum, kd Lebron, Anthony Davis. That would be
Speaker 1: the lineup that I'd use. And then in specific matchups
Speaker 1: against really big front lines, guys that like Jokic in Serbia,
Speaker 1: that's where I would play Embiid because I think matches
Speaker 1: up better with Jokic. But I think alongside other stars,
Speaker 1: AD is a better player, and I think Tatum is
Speaker 1: better than Anthony Edwards in a vacuum, but especially within
Speaker 1: the context of playing alongside the other stars, I think
Speaker 1: Tatum would be their route to go. But I mean,
Speaker 1: Steph Tatum, Katie Lebron, Ad, they should beat the shit
Speaker 1: out of everybody. That's that's a legendary team. I'm very
Speaker 1: lucky the Volume sending me out on Wednesday in July,
Speaker 1: right before the right before the summer league, to see
Speaker 1: a scrimmage for Team USA versus the Canadian national team.
Speaker 1: Very very excited for that. I think that should be
Speaker 1: a fun game, especially if Jamal Murray plays, because it'll
Speaker 1: be Shay, Jamal Murray, Dylan Brooks like that. That should
Speaker 1: be a really fun game to watch. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: be back on Monday morning covering some the first side
Speaker 1: of the ball for the NBA Finals. We're recovering Boston
Speaker 1: on offense, film and everything. Then we'll get into Dallas
Speaker 1: on offense on Tuesday, and then we'll get into some
Speaker 1: interview stuff on Wednesday. As always, I sincerely appreciate you
Speaker 1: guys for rocking with me and supporting the show. I'll
Speaker 1: see you on Monday. The Volume