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Speaker 1: dot net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 1: presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Monday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to get my two cents on our
Speaker 1: first little bit of drama in the NBA off season
Speaker 1: this round the calendar, sport that we love so much,
Speaker 1: that is getting off to a spicy start. So Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving is apparently having trouble with the Brooklyn Nets and
Speaker 1: their contract negotiations, which, by the way, we all saw
Speaker 1: coming when Kyrie was, you know, demonstrating a complete and
Speaker 1: total lack of self awareness after the season saying things like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is an equal partnership between me and Kevin and Joe,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna build this thing, and I'm excited to
Speaker 1: come back and make all of this work. And then
Speaker 1: literally the Nets came back and they were like, actually,
Speaker 1: we're interested in people that actually want to show up
Speaker 1: to work and people who are actually in this with us,
Speaker 1: not just talking about being in this with us. So
Speaker 1: we were not surprised. I'll read this wheat from Sham's
Speaker 1: Urania this morning. Sources Kyrie Irving and the Nets are
Speaker 1: at an impasse in conversations about his future in Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: clearing way for the seven time All Star to consider
Speaker 1: the open market. The Lakers and Knicks and Clippers, if
Speaker 1: you click on the article, expected to emerge among potential suitors.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to come at this from a couple
Speaker 1: of different angles. First of all, I expect there to
Speaker 1: be a resolution here um the Brooklyn that's simply don't
Speaker 1: have nearly enough talent. I'll get into this a little
Speaker 1: bit more here in just a couple of minutes. But
Speaker 1: you could argue, even if you do retain Kyrie, even
Speaker 1: if Ben Simmons comes back at a hundred percent, and
Speaker 1: even if you make some quality moves this offseason. You
Speaker 1: might not have enough. You know, the playoffs are all telling.
Speaker 1: The playoffs are revealing. There's no hiding. It exposes everything.
Speaker 1: It will expose your weaknesses as an individual, and it
Speaker 1: will expose your weaknesses as an organization. It will also
Speaker 1: expose your strengths as you get to that stage. But
Speaker 1: there's no hiding. There is no b s ing. There
Speaker 1: is no fooling anybody in the NBA playoffs. And there
Speaker 1: was one team that seemed to be on a different
Speaker 1: level than all of the other teams in this playoff field.
Speaker 1: Not that they were the worst team, but in terms
Speaker 1: of their performance relative to the rest of the field.
Speaker 1: You guys saw the New Orleans Pelicans as an eight seed,
Speaker 1: fight like hell against the Suns and almost beat them. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they benefited from some injury luck there as well, but
Speaker 1: they showed a great deal of fight. You know. You
Speaker 1: saw um even the weaker teams like the Atlanta Hawks
Speaker 1: clawback and get one against Miami. Brooklyn never even really
Speaker 1: threatened Boston after that first game when Jayson Tatum had
Speaker 1: the game winning layoup, even on their home floor. They
Speaker 1: didn't show any fight, and most importantly, they seemed at
Speaker 1: a massive physical mismatch. My biggest fear for Brooklyn is
Speaker 1: not their top end talent. I know what Kevin Dury
Speaker 1: can do. I even know what Kyrie can do, and
Speaker 1: I think he's fine as a number two. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's a Kyrie Irving problem. What it is is
Speaker 1: down the roster, they don't have what Boston has and
Speaker 1: what Golden State had, and what Miami has, and what
Speaker 1: all of the good teams around the league have, which
Speaker 1: is a bunch of guys. You need about a half
Speaker 1: dozen to functionally round out a rotation, like at the
Speaker 1: low end, four guys, but you need guys between six
Speaker 1: five and six nine. They can guard multiple positions and
Speaker 1: can drible passenger shoot to some capacity. They don't have
Speaker 1: to be great at those things, but they have to
Speaker 1: be good at those things. And instead Brooklyn was basically
Speaker 1: running out there with Andre Drummond, a guy who's big,
Speaker 1: a guy who has moments offensively, but isn't doesn't really
Speaker 1: have the high level basketball i Q necessary to function
Speaker 1: in that setting. Isn't polished enough offensively and defensively. He's
Speaker 1: all over the place. He's sometimes he's on, sometimes he's not.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he makes these all world defensive plays and other
Speaker 1: times you won't even jump for a Locke and you'll
Speaker 1: be like, what are you doing? Man? Trust me? I
Speaker 1: know played for the Lakers last year. You know, Bruce Brown,
Speaker 1: really really solid defensive player. He fits that mold to
Speaker 1: a t. A little bit limited offensively, but that's one
Speaker 1: guy that works. That's one The problem is as they
Speaker 1: let James Johnson go, and they were running a lot
Speaker 1: of Kessler Edwards there and and he wasn't ready. They
Speaker 1: didn't have enough of those guys. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: Patty Mills too small, a lot of Seth Curry too small,
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, Gore on drag. It's not
Speaker 1: athletic enough at the position. They have a weakness there
Speaker 1: that I'm not sure that Ben Simmons can fill. At
Speaker 1: the very best case scenario, they will be a functional
Speaker 1: team that's not deep enough. So because of those things,
Speaker 1: it is imperative for them to retain Kyrie, regardless of
Speaker 1: how you feel about the contract. So my guess is
Speaker 1: one of two things will happen. Kyrie will either opt
Speaker 1: in and essentially play out this year in his contract.
Speaker 1: If he shows up to work every day and has
Speaker 1: a good season, he can rejuvenate his value around the
Speaker 1: league and eventually get his max contract next summer. That's
Speaker 1: the best case scenario for Kyrie, right what I would
Speaker 1: do if I was the Nets. If he doesn't opt
Speaker 1: in and threatens to be a free agent, I would
Speaker 1: just sign him to the big deal. If Golden State
Speaker 1: could flip D'Angelo Russell for a player and Andrew Wiggins
Speaker 1: that ended up being their second best player in this
Speaker 1: playoff run, then I feel like I could do the
Speaker 1: same thing with Kyrie Irving, who's a better basketball player
Speaker 1: than D'Angelo Russell. So, no matter what, they should not
Speaker 1: let him go. I believe this is all just posturing
Speaker 1: to help Kyrie and his negotiations. But no matter what,
Speaker 1: they can't afford to let him go. What's Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: gonna do If you lose, lose Kyrie Irving to some
Speaker 1: other team and he's going at this next year with
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons and a bunch of role players, now you're
Speaker 1: now you run the risk of pissing him off and
Speaker 1: getting him to demand a trade. So I do believe
Speaker 1: this is just a leverage player. I do, But let's
Speaker 1: let's pretend, for the sake of argument, that this does
Speaker 1: go south and Kyrie puts his vote down. He's been
Speaker 1: known to do that. What he did in Cleveland when
Speaker 1: Lebron wanted him trade it, he was like, get me
Speaker 1: out of here. If you don't, I will get knee surgery.
Speaker 1: And that threat worked and Cleveland got rid of So
Speaker 1: let's say there's some bad blood. Kyrie takes it personally.
Speaker 1: You tweeted out a little jeff of him laughing. Uh,
Speaker 1: this are not him laughing, but some other person laughing
Speaker 1: this morning. So obviously he's having some fun at at
Speaker 1: everyone's expense with this as well. But let's just pretend
Speaker 1: he's he's leaving the Clippers. You know, the the Knicks
Speaker 1: are are a wild card, and who the heck knows
Speaker 1: what they're gonna do. They would have to create cap
Speaker 1: space and either to conduct a sign and trade for
Speaker 1: Kyrie or a third team involved to dump a bunch
Speaker 1: of salary so that they could open up space for Kyrie.
Speaker 1: But either way, I find them uninteresting because the Knicks
Speaker 1: just simply aren't good enough. So Kyrie ends up going
Speaker 1: to the Knicks. Good for Kyrie, I'll have a big stage.
Speaker 1: You can put up number and the Knicks aren't doing anything.
Speaker 1: The Clippers and Lakers are what interests me. The Clippers,
Speaker 1: I said in in the show that I recorded on Sunday,
Speaker 1: I talked about how you know um, I talked about
Speaker 1: how next year I've I've viewed Golden State as a
Speaker 1: runaway favorite at this point, but the biggest threat to
Speaker 1: them out in the West is the Clippers. They're better
Speaker 1: version of Boston, and I went into detail on that.
Speaker 1: I won't go any further, but if you can somehow
Speaker 1: upgrade the Reggie Jackson position to a player of Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving's caliber, and knowing what Kyrie Irving is capable of
Speaker 1: defensively when he actually is trying, which we haven't really
Speaker 1: seen much since two thousands sixteen, that's a really interesting
Speaker 1: fit there. And you know, the biggest thing that you
Speaker 1: have to worry about with the Lakers and the Clippers
Speaker 1: is the hard cap. The hard cap essentially is if
Speaker 1: you make a trade assigning trade, you no longer have
Speaker 1: the functionality of using exceptions to go over the cap.
Speaker 1: Once you get to the hardcap, you're done. It's like
Speaker 1: that's all there is to it, and your best bet
Speaker 1: is to sign veteran minimums at the end of the
Speaker 1: season because you can get the pro rated salary which
Speaker 1: will fit tightly into the in the small gaps between
Speaker 1: you and the hardcap. So it's it's very complicated. For
Speaker 1: a team like a Lakers, that can be extremely damaging
Speaker 1: because you don't have enough players right now. The Clippers
Speaker 1: have a lot of guys and they're all under team control,
Speaker 1: and whatever they work on this offseason is gonna be
Speaker 1: just tiny moves on the margins, right So if you
Speaker 1: can bring Kyrie in and it hardcaps you, who cares
Speaker 1: because you don't need any more guys. You've got enough pieces.
Speaker 1: So the Clippers actually it makes a little bit more
Speaker 1: sense than the Lakers. If the Lakers were to pull
Speaker 1: it off. The trick is is you've got so much
Speaker 1: salary tied up elsewhere on the roster that now you
Speaker 1: run into the predicament that you might only be able
Speaker 1: to sign, you know, four or five veterment veteran minimum contracts.
Speaker 1: You might be going into the season with like ten
Speaker 1: guys and a bunch of open roster spots. It can
Speaker 1: get really tricky with the math because of how much
Speaker 1: money is tied up in their stars. Also, I think
Speaker 1: it gets really complicated because the only really way you
Speaker 1: can get Kyrie's you've gotta trade Russ. So now you've
Speaker 1: got to convince someone to take Russ. Brooklyn is not
Speaker 1: going to take them. Why would they, So, like you're
Speaker 1: you're in this predicament where I mean, unless you can
Speaker 1: convince k d to hunt another season of his prime
Speaker 1: to play with Russ to then have a bunch of
Speaker 1: cap space after, I mean, maybe, but I I view
Speaker 1: that as a huge long shot. The far more likely
Speaker 1: scenarios they'd have to find a third team and they'd
Speaker 1: have to send Russ there with draft compensation, and then
Speaker 1: that team would have to send quality players to Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: It just gets really difficult to pull off. But I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously I like to fit. Kyrie and Lebron were a
Speaker 1: perfect fit. Kyrie kind of perfectly encapsulate some of Lebron's
Speaker 1: specific weaknesses and needs. Lebron is a very good three
Speaker 1: level score, but Kyrie's uh is a touch better. As
Speaker 1: a shot creator in specific matchups, Lebron is ten times
Speaker 1: the basketball players, So don't take it like that. Lebron
Speaker 1: absolutely can create his own shot. Lebron absolutely can attack matchups.
Speaker 1: He's the second best basketball player to ever play the game.
Speaker 1: But Kyrie, as you saw in Cleveland, his ability to
Speaker 1: create his own shot off the bounce was very valuable
Speaker 1: to Lebron, especially in possessions where he wants to rest.
Speaker 1: And then, as we've always known Lebron for being the
Speaker 1: best playmaker and all of basketball, doesn't actually like doing
Speaker 1: that all the game. He wants to be able to
Speaker 1: throw the ball to somebody and have them do it
Speaker 1: for him for long stretches of the game. That's why
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder was acquired, That's why region Rondo was acquired
Speaker 1: in season, and that's why they went after Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: It's a it's it's something that Lebron is always held
Speaker 1: as something that is urgently important to him. So Kyrie
Speaker 1: checks that box. And we already know he's a natural
Speaker 1: basketball fit, So I like it. The only thing that
Speaker 1: concerns means the Lakers have an issue with perimeter size,
Speaker 1: and they have for the last season and it deemed
Speaker 1: lethal for them this year. It doesn't matter how big
Speaker 1: you are in the front court. If you've got too
Speaker 1: many Avery Bradley's on the floor and too many guys
Speaker 1: that are just getting bullied by the bigger guards around leaked.
Speaker 1: For those of you guys who listened to my um
Speaker 1: top five things that I learned this season when we
Speaker 1: got to the XS and ose portion, perimeter size continued
Speaker 1: to be one of the biggest things that I value,
Speaker 1: So I like it for both teams. It's just unrealistic
Speaker 1: for the Lakers, difficult for the Clippers, and more than
Speaker 1: likely this is all leverage play and he's gonna end
Speaker 1: up Stain. And then last note I wanted to hit.
Speaker 1: The Lakers and Nets are in big trouble. Lebron and
Speaker 1: kde are in big trouble. The Clippers are gonna be back.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be better. The Bucks are gonna be back.
Speaker 1: They're gonna be better. Boston might not make any moves,
Speaker 1: but you've got Tatum and Brown one year deeper, more
Speaker 1: scar tissue, the pain of loss, getting them to approach
Speaker 1: the game with even more intensity than they have in
Speaker 1: years past. There's a lot of a lot of motivation
Speaker 1: there for them. You know, the Sixers with Harden and
Speaker 1: Embiid are gonna be back, and at a higher level,
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot more talent in the league
Speaker 1: next year as everybody gets healthy and gets back into it.
Speaker 1: The Nets and Lakers simply do not have enough right now,
Speaker 1: and even if they hit home run summers, they will
Speaker 1: not be the most talented teams in the league, which
Speaker 1: means they instantly fall into that second tier of contenders
Speaker 1: where it's like, you can win a championship, but things
Speaker 1: gotta break right for you. Dud's gotta get hurt, somebody's
Speaker 1: gotta get upset, a lot of things gotta go your way.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they can't win. I wouldn't count them out,
Speaker 1: and you're stupid if you count out Katie or Lebron.
Speaker 1: But it's a long shot at this point, and they're
Speaker 1: both in trouble, and I don't I don't think it'll
Speaker 1: be I don't think it'll be a surprise at all
Speaker 1: if you see Lebron and Katie start getting a little
Speaker 1: bit of a wandering eye. Today, we're gonna be going
Speaker 1: through the five biggest things that I learned from this
Speaker 1: playoff run, and then obviously we've got a packed week
Speaker 1: this week. I'm gonna try to start digging into NBA
Speaker 1: draft stuff tomorrow morning. The NBA Draft is coming this
Speaker 1: Thursday before we get started. Follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore Jason lt. That's where you'll see announcements about anything
Speaker 1: that we've got coming up this summer, any specific plans
Speaker 1: that we have for contents, just a good way to
Speaker 1: stay up to speed with what we're doing. Don't forget
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel, and if you
Speaker 1: miss any of these shows for whatever reason, you can
Speaker 1: find them under my podcast feed, which for the time
Speaker 1: being is under Lakers Tonight. So obviously, after the NBA
Speaker 1: Finals were over, we wanted to dig into all of
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals story lines, and there are additional storylines
Speaker 1: there that will get into further this summer, things like
Speaker 1: player rankings and things like you know where Steph falls
Speaker 1: on the all time list. But I need a lot
Speaker 1: of time to dig into a lot of stuff for that,
Speaker 1: so that'll be a little bit further down the line.
Speaker 1: But what I like to do around this time of
Speaker 1: year is kind of recap all of the things that
Speaker 1: we learned from this season, because I think it's important
Speaker 1: to take lessons to help our analysis as we look forward,
Speaker 1: to help with our predictions, to help with all of
Speaker 1: that stuff. And we did learn a lot in this
Speaker 1: playoff run, a very very interesting playoff run with a
Speaker 1: ton of good teams where I think the right team won.
Speaker 1: And when the right team wins like this, it's there's
Speaker 1: some process stuff that we can key in on. So
Speaker 1: the number one thing that I learned from this postseason
Speaker 1: is that the Golden State Warriors are easily the best
Speaker 1: team heading into next year. I know that in Vegas
Speaker 1: through the preseason favorite, but I think it things look
Speaker 1: even better for them than they appear on the surface.
Speaker 1: I'm very, very briefly touched on this with Colin and
Speaker 1: of Game six, but if you really think about it,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that didn't go Steph or
Speaker 1: or Draymond or Clay or the Warriors is way this year.
Speaker 1: You probably heard Draymond in the postgame conference saying, don't
Speaker 1: let us get this one. Y'all messed up? You let
Speaker 1: us get this one. And the reason why they say
Speaker 1: that is this was kind of a gap year. They
Speaker 1: didn't have the same I mean, they obviously wanted to
Speaker 1: win a title, but they were under the impression that
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be able to get it this year. At
Speaker 1: least something there was some internal doubt. Draymond himself has
Speaker 1: said that you had a lot of young guys in
Speaker 1: the rotation. You know, Steph was had a weird season.
Speaker 1: He was hurt towards the end of the season. That's
Speaker 1: the underrated, well, one of the most underrated parts of
Speaker 1: this playoff run. Steph didn't touch a basketball, it touched basketball,
Speaker 1: didn't play any basketball going into Game one of the
Speaker 1: of that playoff series against Denver because of that sprained foot.
Speaker 1: Didn't have time to build up and get his rhythm,
Speaker 1: didn't have time to get his body ready for it all.
Speaker 1: He just was thrown into the fire in the in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Draymond had his back issue, and Clay I'm
Speaker 1: sure if you asked him, if he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be playing in an NBA Finals game, he'd
Speaker 1: probably prefer a good full season to get his legs
Speaker 1: underneath them and to get his field for the game back.
Speaker 1: He didn't have that luxury. All of those guys are
Speaker 1: going to have that luxury next season. Steph had a
Speaker 1: really bad regular season shooting wise compared to the way
Speaker 1: he used to be to play over the previous half decade. Right,
Speaker 1: that's probably not gonna happen this year. He proved in
Speaker 1: the postseason that that was flukey. What happened in the
Speaker 1: regular season was fluky. So you can expect a better
Speaker 1: version of Steph next year. Looking at Clay Thompson, this
Speaker 1: is a guy who had two catastrophic lower body injuries.
Speaker 1: There is a delay in that process when you have
Speaker 1: that kind of injury. There's like the physical element, but
Speaker 1: then there's the mental element, there's a confidence element. I
Speaker 1: broke my foot between my first and second year playing
Speaker 1: college basketball, and it was funny because I I my
Speaker 1: first time playing was showing up to the campus. I
Speaker 1: had to take two months off immediately before the season,
Speaker 1: and I remember stepping on and playing three on three
Speaker 1: like one of my first nights on campus and nearly
Speaker 1: dying because I was in such terrible, like cardio shape
Speaker 1: from not playing for so long, and it took me
Speaker 1: a long time to get back. I mean that entire
Speaker 1: first half of the season, non conference play, I was
Speaker 1: a shell of myself. Even in that second half of
Speaker 1: the season, I played significantly better. I ended up making
Speaker 1: the All conference team, but I still wasn't me. I
Speaker 1: still wasn't the same athlete that I was the previous season.
Speaker 1: It took me until the following season to really feel
Speaker 1: like I had my body back, to have the confidence
Speaker 1: to be able to plant that footh hard, to have
Speaker 1: that confidence to really take off. There's a difference between Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm taking a one durable pull up when I'm
Speaker 1: messing around at the gym and I am like really
Speaker 1: pushing my body to the limit to get separation in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. You guys see the difference and what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about there, there's like another level physically. I
Speaker 1: think Clay will get there next season. I think Clay
Speaker 1: will physically be at a point where he feels as
Speaker 1: close as he's gonna get to what he was before
Speaker 1: the injury. It was unrealistic to expect him to get
Speaker 1: there in this postseason, and he still gave you enough
Speaker 1: to get the trophy. So that's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: to be excited about there. And Draymond Graen was dealing
Speaker 1: with a back issue. He didn't really start to look
Speaker 1: great physically until the second half of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: And then most importantly, Jordan Poole, you know, he struggled
Speaker 1: for at certain stretches of the postseason where it looked
Speaker 1: like he was getting targeted too much defensively. Early on
Speaker 1: in the Boston series, it looked like he might not
Speaker 1: even be able to play, And by the end of
Speaker 1: that series he was absolutely imperative to Golden State and
Speaker 1: their success with the scoring punch he was bringing off
Speaker 1: the bench. Colin Coward himself said after Game six, and
Speaker 1: I thought this was really smart. He said, That's what
Speaker 1: Boston needed, was just somebody who could effortlessly give you
Speaker 1: fifteen points on the strength of his offensive skill set,
Speaker 1: and Jordan Pool gave you that with a little heater.
Speaker 1: He talked a cot In perimeter shooting there in Game six.
Speaker 1: Another year of development for Jordan Pool, another year of
Speaker 1: reps during the regular season for Jordan Pool. Same thing
Speaker 1: for Jonathan Cominga and Moses Moody. You know, Moses Moody
Speaker 1: to me is a very very very classic wing role player,
Speaker 1: very reliable type of guy that you can plug into
Speaker 1: any rotation, and he demonstrated that against Dallas. But he's
Speaker 1: going to be ready for that next season with another
Speaker 1: year of Summer League, another year of training camp, another
Speaker 1: year of Steve Kirk giving them reps in the regular season.
Speaker 1: Jonathan Cominga is a little bit more of a wild card.
Speaker 1: Right Like, on any given night he looks unplayable because
Speaker 1: he's young and inexperienced and doesn't have the offensive polish.
Speaker 1: But then you see him on other nights and he
Speaker 1: looks great. Another summer league, another training camp, another eighty
Speaker 1: two games of regular season basketball. For all of those guys,
Speaker 1: with all of that that I just laid out, Steph
Speaker 1: having a better season, Clay having a better season, Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool being one year better, Cominga and Mooda Moody being
Speaker 1: one year better, draym On Green being healthy as opposed
Speaker 1: to dealing with the stuff that he dealt with. There's
Speaker 1: a version of this story or Golden State is a
Speaker 1: much better team next season than they were this season,
Speaker 1: and as a result of that, they absolutely should be
Speaker 1: considered the favorites, not just in terms of uh throwing
Speaker 1: on or in respect to the champion, but just a
Speaker 1: simple matter of basketball talent. The biggest questions are gonna
Speaker 1: be what they do on the periphery. Otto Porter Jr.
Speaker 1: Can you retain him? That will be a question. He
Speaker 1: was a very useful role player this year. He's probably
Speaker 1: going to be in that mid level exception market this year.
Speaker 1: Is Golden State gonna be able to retain him or
Speaker 1: are they gonna lose it? That's a question mark Gary Payton.
Speaker 1: The second, it's another guy that it's going to be
Speaker 1: really interesting to see what kind of attention he gets
Speaker 1: in the free agent market this year. Are they gonna
Speaker 1: be able to retain him? And then the big one
Speaker 1: is COmON Looney. Now the Warriors have his bird rights,
Speaker 1: So with Kevon Looney, it's really just a matter of
Speaker 1: what Joe Lacob is willing to pay. Now. I have
Speaker 1: heard from people who are connected to the Warriors that
Speaker 1: they will do anything to prevent Kevin Looney from walking.
Speaker 1: It would it would choir and outrageous offer for them
Speaker 1: to let him split um. Too many people in that
Speaker 1: locker room are so close with Kievan and are so
Speaker 1: are so dependent on him, and they know how important
Speaker 1: he is that they're not going to let him go.
Speaker 1: So I expect him to bring him back. The big
Speaker 1: mistake that they could make that I hope they don't
Speaker 1: and that Warriors fans should be scared of, is that
Speaker 1: we don't need Looney because James Wiseman is that guy camp.
Speaker 1: Anybody who pushes in that direction. I view that as
Speaker 1: a very dangerous gamble. There's a lot of intel with
Speaker 1: James Wiseman that he doesn't even like basketball that much.
Speaker 1: That like, he's not itching to get back out onto
Speaker 1: the court. That's why everyone was so irritated when they
Speaker 1: saw him working out during the NBA Finals. It's like, dude,
Speaker 1: you you're not even actually really making an attempt to
Speaker 1: be out here. You could have been out here if
Speaker 1: you wanted to be out here. There was some weird
Speaker 1: stuff there. Now, who knows. James Wiseman might still very
Speaker 1: well develop into a fantastic prospect, but I think betting
Speaker 1: on him to be Looney for you next year would
Speaker 1: be a catastrophic mistake. Bring back Looney. Wiseman needs years.
Speaker 1: Wiseman might need to three need to three years to
Speaker 1: really be a foundational center in the n b A.
Speaker 1: And so they retaining Looney is going to be their
Speaker 1: biggest um. Is gonna be the most important thing for
Speaker 1: them to do this offseason. And then, as it is
Speaker 1: always the case, like I always say, keep your eyes
Speaker 1: and ears out for one additional guy. Don't be don't
Speaker 1: be uh Milwaukee, Don't let p J. Tucker go and
Speaker 1: then suddenly find out against Boston that you have one
Speaker 1: one wing, one like one rotation piece like a grace
Speaker 1: and Allen that is not giving you enough, and you
Speaker 1: wish you had a better player there. You don't want
Speaker 1: to make that mistake. That's why I would try to
Speaker 1: retain Otto Porter Jr. With the mid level exception if
Speaker 1: they could. The two teams that I see is the
Speaker 1: biggest threat to Golden State next season out west is
Speaker 1: the Clippers. They are a better version of Boston when
Speaker 1: they're actually healthy, and they have all their guys, when
Speaker 1: they have Kauai and Paul George, with Nick Patum, with
Speaker 1: Marcus Morris Sr. You know, with zobots Was, with Reggie Jackson,
Speaker 1: with whoever it is that they plug into those spots.
Speaker 1: Terrence Man is another good one. All of those guys
Speaker 1: um when they're healthy, they have the same type of
Speaker 1: defensive versatility and talent that Boston had with significantly better
Speaker 1: offensive players. You know, I was thinking about this a
Speaker 1: lot the other day, Like as good as good as
Speaker 1: Tatum was for stretches of the postseason, he also had
Speaker 1: these ugly stretches and then he was really bad in
Speaker 1: the finals. I was asking myself the other day, I'm like,
Speaker 1: is Paul George better than Jayson Tatum, And like, gun
Speaker 1: to my head, even though I think Tatum is a
Speaker 1: better defensive player and a better athlete, right now, I
Speaker 1: trust Paul George more as a decision maker and as
Speaker 1: a guy who can run your offense. And then Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard is just in another stratosphere than any of the
Speaker 1: guys that I just mentioned, So you that that's gonna
Speaker 1: be the biggest threat to Golden State out west next
Speaker 1: year is a healthy Clippers team that does a lot
Speaker 1: of the same things that Boston did in terms of
Speaker 1: perimeter mismatches, but with significantly higher level offensive organization and
Speaker 1: then an actual superstar. They can go toe to toe
Speaker 1: with Steph and has done so before and Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: in two thousand nineteen. And then out out East, it's Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: If Milwaukee finds one more piece and Chris Middleton gets healthy,
Speaker 1: and you, honest, who I think is the best basketball
Speaker 1: player in the world, takes one more leap, then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, Milwaukee becomes a bigger threat, but it
Speaker 1: easily Going into next season, I think Golden State is
Speaker 1: the favorite alright, number two the second of the five
Speaker 1: lessons that I learned this postseason. For number two, I
Speaker 1: just want to go over some xs and those things.
Speaker 1: And there's four specifically that I put down perimeter defense,
Speaker 1: the value of playmaking, the lack of need for traditional centers,
Speaker 1: and the value of coaching. Let's started perimeter defense. Golden
Speaker 1: State demonstrated this resoundingly in the finals. As the game
Speaker 1: has become more spread out, as more teams are going
Speaker 1: four out, one in or five out as opposed to
Speaker 1: a two big system, or having a rollman and a
Speaker 1: guy in the dunker spot, those kinds of things. As
Speaker 1: teams have gone away from that, there's been more offensive
Speaker 1: talent on the floor ditching. You know, you're seeing look
Speaker 1: at all the centers you saw play this year. Their
Speaker 1: rim running centers. Guys like a guy like Rob Williams, right,
Speaker 1: or a guy like you know, Maxi Kleiba, right, or
Speaker 1: a guy like Bama at a bio. It's a lot
Speaker 1: of like more modern like Kevan Looney is kind of
Speaker 1: a rare thing in the sense that he plays a
Speaker 1: traditional center role, but he's actually you know, uh, he's
Speaker 1: doing perimeter player stuff. He's containing ball handlers, he's uh
Speaker 1: able to make decisions in the short role, those kinds
Speaker 1: of things that there's there's a specific archetype of player
Speaker 1: you're seeing there. And then the four, whoever was playing
Speaker 1: the power forward that's gone. That's just another wing now.
Speaker 1: And for some teams another guard, you know, like Golden
Speaker 1: State for a while was playing Andrew Wiggins at the
Speaker 1: four with the with their new death lineup right, So like,
Speaker 1: as a result, there's now at any given moment at
Speaker 1: least four, if not five guys on the floor for
Speaker 1: either for any team that can drim, pass and shoot.
Speaker 1: So as a result, it's gotten a lot more driving,
Speaker 1: kick heavy, and more than ever, it's important to contain
Speaker 1: ball handlers to keep people in front. So one of
Speaker 1: the biggest lessons I learned in this playoff run in
Speaker 1: terms of XS and os, is just how important perimeter
Speaker 1: defense is. The NBA Finals swung on Clay Thompson, Gary
Speaker 1: Payton the second, Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green, containing Tatum
Speaker 1: and Brown sitting on their right hands, making them drive
Speaker 1: left where they were primarily pull up jump shooters instead
Speaker 1: of guys who could get to the rim. As a result,
Speaker 1: Boston couldn't get consistent drivel penetration and as a result,
Speaker 1: they couldn't get into their driving kick game. I pointed
Speaker 1: this out several times, but Boston generated twenty three wide
Speaker 1: open threes in Game one and never had more than
Speaker 1: thirteen in any game after that. That's because Boston or
Speaker 1: Golden State figured out that they had to keep people
Speaker 1: in front, and they just challenged their players to do
Speaker 1: the job, and they did, and Kerr gave them a
Speaker 1: good game plan and they were able to do it.
Speaker 1: So when we're watching these teams this offseason, when we're
Speaker 1: looking at rosters, and as we're watching teams in the
Speaker 1: regular season, we need to pay attention to what their
Speaker 1: personnel looks like on the perimeter and their ability to
Speaker 1: contain and are they doing the job because there are
Speaker 1: also teams out thereho have the personnel, but the guys
Speaker 1: just don't do it. But you have to be able
Speaker 1: to keep ball handlers in front. The second big xs
Speaker 1: and those lesson I learned is just how important playmaking
Speaker 1: is and our game management. You know, uh, the ball handling,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, but the idea of
Speaker 1: offensive organization, a player that is capable of being the
Speaker 1: person who gets you organized on offense. You know, there's
Speaker 1: value in the scoring archetype, there's value, and adjacent Tatum,
Speaker 1: there's value, and a Kevin During a great deal of value.
Speaker 1: That's what I was as a basketball player. It's what
Speaker 1: I still am to this day. My skill set is
Speaker 1: that of a three level score. That's what I do
Speaker 1: when I play with the team. I have to fill
Speaker 1: in the gaps. But the thing that I bring to
Speaker 1: the table is my scoring, right So I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to undercut that as a value, but I do think
Speaker 1: that teams absolutely must have somebody who can manage the game.
Speaker 1: It We think of Boston as a team that came
Speaker 1: very close, right two wins away from win in the
Speaker 1: NBA Championship, but they damn near blood against Miami and
Speaker 1: they damn near blood against Milwaukee, And a huge part
Speaker 1: of that was that exact weakness that I'm referencing here.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't have to be your heliocentric guy at
Speaker 1: the top of the key making all the decisions Allah
Speaker 1: Luca don Chitch, James Harden, or even Lebron James, who
Speaker 1: was a much better version of that than those guys are.
Speaker 1: It can be Steph. You can manage a game off
Speaker 1: the ball. You can manage a game in so many
Speaker 1: different ways, but you need to have a grown up
Speaker 1: on the court, an offensive grown up, a high basketball
Speaker 1: like you, guy who can handle a basketball, who can
Speaker 1: get people in the right spots, and who has the
Speaker 1: ability psychologically in terms of their command of the team
Speaker 1: to get things back on track. For instance, Steph cannot
Speaker 1: have the ball sometimes, but guys won't take stupid shots
Speaker 1: because they know better. How many times do you see
Speaker 1: somebody kick the ball to Draymond Green or to Gary Payton,
Speaker 1: the second on the perimeter, and rather than shoot the
Speaker 1: wide open three, they work it back around to Steph.
Speaker 1: It's the that's the psychological command of the team that
Speaker 1: Steph has. That's how he manages the game. So there
Speaker 1: are a bunch of different ways to do it. Yoki
Speaker 1: kind of has his own unique twist on it as
Speaker 1: a center, right. But we have seen time and time
Speaker 1: again that against these top tier defenses, the really good,
Speaker 1: well coached defenses that have good personnel that consistently make
Speaker 1: you do things that you don't want to do, that
Speaker 1: consistently make you uncomfortable, those teams require you to have
Speaker 1: a guy who is your adult in the room offensively.
Speaker 1: We saw that become a lethal flopper for Boston and
Speaker 1: we will continue to see that over the years with
Speaker 1: teams that go into these types of playoff runs without
Speaker 1: that important piece uh the third one. Traditional centers. Again,
Speaker 1: we talked about this a little bit earlier with Kevon Looney.
Speaker 1: There are a handful of examples or exceptions of traditional
Speaker 1: centers who can function in the NBA. Guys like Kevon Looney,
Speaker 1: who brings so much as an offensive rebounder, who can
Speaker 1: guard on the peri immittur, which is immensely important, and
Speaker 1: who are smart offensive players, meaning they never force things.
Speaker 1: Kevin Luney never takes a shot or forces anything around
Speaker 1: the rim. That's a bad shot. But Rob Williams again
Speaker 1: rim runner, big athletic, can cover ground on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: can get up and down the floor and transition You're
Speaker 1: There are rare examples of that, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: it's your hybrid forward centers that bring the most value
Speaker 1: on the stage. It's the Draymond Greens, It's the Bam
Speaker 1: out of Bios, It's the Maxi Kleiba you who actually
Speaker 1: flashed lots of defensive potential in this postseason run. Those
Speaker 1: are the guys that matter. So when you see teams
Speaker 1: out there that are like, oh, I think we need
Speaker 1: Dwight Howard, you know, like, if Dwight Howard goes back
Speaker 1: to the Lakers on a minimum contract, is a backup center,
Speaker 1: that's fine. But if you are building your team as
Speaker 1: functionally with a starter or a key rotation piece as
Speaker 1: a slow, old fashioned plotting center, you are building your
Speaker 1: team around us isle of basketball that will force you
Speaker 1: to bench that guy when it matters, and then you'll
Speaker 1: be forced to in the playoffs to retool on the
Speaker 1: fly and force and learn how to play a different
Speaker 1: style of basketball. Any team that has an old fashioned, plotting,
Speaker 1: traditional center in their main rotation is setting themselves up
Speaker 1: for failure in my opinion. And the last, but not
Speaker 1: least coaching, I thought emil Udoka was out coached in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. Had disagreed with his drop coverage strategy.
Speaker 1: I didn't think he did nearly enough to try to
Speaker 1: get the ball out of steps hands the way that
Speaker 1: almost every other team in the NBA does. And you
Speaker 1: saw teams like Eric the Miami Heat with Derrik Spoelstrat
Speaker 1: and the Warriors with Steve Kerr, have significant advantages over
Speaker 1: the course of this playoff run. I was so impressed
Speaker 1: with Steve kerr strategy that he used to throw Boston
Speaker 1: out of rhythm, the way that he uh was willing
Speaker 1: to risk his best help defender, Draymond going away from
Speaker 1: the basket to contain Jalen Brown. That was a big risk,
Speaker 1: but he understood, if we contain on the perimeter, we
Speaker 1: don't need help. We can bait these guys into bad
Speaker 1: isolation possessions. And I just I thought Steve Kerr had
Speaker 1: his most impressive playoff run as a coach, and I
Speaker 1: thought it was a great reminder just how important this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff is, not just on the defensive vent,
Speaker 1: but on the offensive end as well, in terms of
Speaker 1: organization and spacing. Look at how bad the Lakers were
Speaker 1: this year with their floor spacing. Look at how the
Speaker 1: Warriors just had that figured out. One credit to Email Yudoka.
Speaker 1: He had their spacing principles down pat with a hand,
Speaker 1: with the exception of a handful of games where I
Speaker 1: thought he got like when Draymond went on Jaalen Brown
Speaker 1: in Game two, and then he was just putting Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown in positions where Draymond could still help. There was
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that I disagreed with there, But
Speaker 1: for the most part, email Udoka had them in really
Speaker 1: classic four out one in spacing with Rob Williams on
Speaker 1: the floor and classic five out spacing when he was
Speaker 1: off the floor. Coaching matters in the NBA, and this
Speaker 1: this playoff from was the resounding example of that. So
Speaker 1: back to the big list, number three superstars still run
Speaker 1: the show. Eight of the last eleven NBA titles were
Speaker 1: won by Steph Curry or Lebron James. The other three
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and Janice. You know, there are rare exceptions,
Speaker 1: like one of that quiet one of those Kahiet Leonard titles.
Speaker 1: Kauai wasn't really a star, so there are rare exceptions.
Speaker 1: You know, Dirk Knovitski in two thousand eleven not a superstar,
Speaker 1: but like kind of was offensive superstar outplay Lebron James
Speaker 1: and Dwyane Wade in the playoff series. But for the
Speaker 1: most part, if you don't have one of the guys,
Speaker 1: you're not winning. And so every team out there needs
Speaker 1: to be building with a clear path. You either have
Speaker 1: that guy and he's young and you're developing him, or
Speaker 1: you're developing young players who you can trade for that guy.
Speaker 1: Anybody who's not looking for that guy is looking in
Speaker 1: the wrong place. I was really curious coming into this
Speaker 1: playoff run to see whether or not this would shift
Speaker 1: the other way. And the example we were looking at
Speaker 1: there was Phoenix. Remember those of you guys have been
Speaker 1: watching the show for a while. Phoenix would have been
Speaker 1: a great example of a team that lacked top end
Speaker 1: talent but had talent down the roster and was able
Speaker 1: to overcome that. Now, Phoenix looks damn near fraudulent when
Speaker 1: we really look back to Paul George without Kawhi lent
Speaker 1: Or taking them to six games in the Conference finals
Speaker 1: last year, the Lakers having a two one lead on
Speaker 1: them before Anthony Davis got hurt, right, and then what
Speaker 1: Dallas did to them this year. So the question is
Speaker 1: to whether or not superstars still matter was answered pretty
Speaker 1: resoundingly this year. You still need one of the guys.
Speaker 1: You you mainly need either stephor Lebron, but you definitely
Speaker 1: at least need one of the guys. And I mean,
Speaker 1: what does that really mean? I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: coincidence that Jayson Tatum struggled in the NBA Finals. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a coincidence that Jalen Brown was inconsistent.
Speaker 1: I don't think any of that stuff is a coincidence.
Speaker 1: The reality is only a select few players in the
Speaker 1: league play well on the biggest stages. It takes a
Speaker 1: Steph or a Lebron or a Kauai or a Janice
Speaker 1: or a Kevin Durant to be on this stage against
Speaker 1: the very best defenses, with the biggest pressure, and for
Speaker 1: them to be comfortable and to play well. I mean,
Speaker 1: even Jimmy Butler, who has had a handful of unbelievably
Speaker 1: dominant games in the NBA playoffs on big stages in
Speaker 1: the last few years, it's all surrounding a bunch of
Speaker 1: like mediocre to clunkers. It's like forty one night and
Speaker 1: then he's bad the next night. To be consistently great
Speaker 1: on this stage, there's only a tiny handful of guys
Speaker 1: who can do it, and Steph was the latest, and
Speaker 1: it's just it's just been a it's just been there.
Speaker 1: Another resounding example of the way this this stage Dambia
Speaker 1: Playoffs works well. I mean, we gotta Stephan lebron Man
Speaker 1: and just an incredibly stacked era of NBA talent. Those
Speaker 1: two guys have clearly separated themselves from the rest. Number four,
Speaker 1: The Lakers are clearly at a competitive disadvantage compared to
Speaker 1: other teams in the league. They're nowhere near well run
Speaker 1: enough to get to make up for some of the
Speaker 1: advantage the smart teams have around the league, right, and
Speaker 1: then they don't have the money to compete with the
Speaker 1: really rich teams in the league. The Warriors are probably
Speaker 1: going to pay Kevon Looney this summer, and when you
Speaker 1: factor in luxury tax, it could cost them tens of
Speaker 1: millions of dollars additional each year. But the Warriors make
Speaker 1: as Colin pointed out to you guys on the show
Speaker 1: last week, the Warriors make seven hundred million dollars in
Speaker 1: revenue a season, which is almost four times as much
Speaker 1: as the average NBA team, So they have this advantage
Speaker 1: in money that they can throw at guys. The Lakers
Speaker 1: are not well run like some of the smarter, poorer
Speaker 1: teams around the league, and they don't have the money
Speaker 1: to hang with the rich teams in the league. So
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose players because of money, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: miss out on opportunities because you've got a general manager
Speaker 1: who doesn't know how to build a basketball team in
Speaker 1: this league, went out and built a team full of
Speaker 1: short guys this year, as if that's ever worked in
Speaker 1: NBA history. They don't have a guy who's grinding in
Speaker 1: the film room, watching hundreds of NBA games every year
Speaker 1: to learn what works. So they don't have the money,
Speaker 1: they don't have the basketball operations, and they're relying heavily
Speaker 1: on a Lebron James was in his twentieth season, and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, who doesn't appear to be nearly as motivated
Speaker 1: as he was in Here's what I expect, And I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do a deeper dive on the Lakers here soon
Speaker 1: as we get a little bit closer to free agency.
Speaker 1: But here's the reality. I think Lebron, even though he'll
Speaker 1: never admit it, is deeply irritated that Steph got another title.
Speaker 1: It's just the competitive nature in him. If he wasn't
Speaker 1: like that, it'd be weird. And he's gonna go into
Speaker 1: this season as motivated as he was in I expect
Speaker 1: a remarkably locked in Lebron James, and I expect Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis to follow suit because the criticism is getting too loud,
Speaker 1: and when Lebron's next to you work in his butt off,
Speaker 1: you just have to join it. But they will not
Speaker 1: have the personnel. They don't have the right guy in
Speaker 1: the seat to make the necessary moves. They're too paranoid
Speaker 1: about holding onto those draft picks. They have this Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook predicament, and they have nothing. They don't have a
Speaker 1: single high level role player under roster control. Austin Reaves
Speaker 1: is the closest thing to it, and I really like
Speaker 1: Austin Reaves, but if he's like starting for you at
Speaker 1: the three, that's not enough. They need guys and they
Speaker 1: just so. What I expect from the Lakers this year
Speaker 1: is for them to be a good team. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna be the bad they were this year. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be a good team. They're gonna be much more well coached,
Speaker 1: much more bought in. I expect Lebron and A d
Speaker 1: to be on the court more frequently. I expect them
Speaker 1: to be a good team, but they won't be a
Speaker 1: great team. They won't have the personnel they certainly won't
Speaker 1: be deep. They'll be fortunate to find three or four
Speaker 1: guys that are quality role players to put alongside Lebron
Speaker 1: and a d and it will be in comment on
Speaker 1: them to play big minutes on all the biggest stages.
Speaker 1: When it comes time to crunch down the rotation in
Speaker 1: the postseason, They're not gonna have a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that they can count on. But it makes no mistake
Speaker 1: if you're a Laker fan, like You've got the Lebron
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis thing going for you, but your team
Speaker 1: is at a competitive disadvantage. You're not as smart as
Speaker 1: the poor teams in the league, and you're not as
Speaker 1: rich as the rich teams in the league, and that
Speaker 1: will forever hold you down until until they figure out
Speaker 1: that money part, until Jeanie Buss gets a real basketball
Speaker 1: person in that President of Basketball Operations chair. And then, last,
Speaker 1: the last big lesson that I learned from this postseason,
Speaker 1: Janice is the best basketball player in the world. For
Speaker 1: the record staff was unbelievably incredible. And Steph. I haven't
Speaker 1: finished my list yes yet, but Steph will be number two.
Speaker 1: I think Steph is at the top of the tier
Speaker 1: below Jannics, but I think his physical dominance. Janice's physical
Speaker 1: dominance has reached a point of invincibility. The way that
Speaker 1: Boston guarded Milwaukee doesn't resemble the way they guarded Steph.
Speaker 1: Boston ran drop coverage on Steph willingly, conceding pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots to him to prevent Boston or to prevent
Speaker 1: Golden State from getting into their four on threes. They
Speaker 1: were conceding points to Steph to prevent everybody else from
Speaker 1: getting going. That was the strategy, and it had moments
Speaker 1: where it looked good, but then it also had a
Speaker 1: lot of moments where Steff was going off and you
Speaker 1: were losing. So I disagreed with the strategy. That was
Speaker 1: not the strategy that used against Janice. Joannice saw the house.
Speaker 1: They had Horford a Grant Williams at the point of
Speaker 1: attack on him. Marcus Smart a little bit towards the
Speaker 1: end of the series, and every time he had the
Speaker 1: ball there were two defenders keyed right in on his
Speaker 1: driving lanes. They were like, we don't care if anybody
Speaker 1: else shoots, we are not letting Janice get going, And
Speaker 1: that dude still ran them over and still put up
Speaker 1: monster numbers. And still damn near one this series without
Speaker 1: his co star. It is his physical dominance has reached
Speaker 1: a point of invincibility, and that series was a revelation
Speaker 1: of Janice's playmaking. It was the first time that I
Speaker 1: felt like he legitimately took a leap to the point
Speaker 1: where he's a functional playmaker in the NBA, A guy
Speaker 1: who can literally and consistently make teams pay for sending
Speaker 1: multiple defenders to him. That's I always said. That was
Speaker 1: what scared me the most about Janice, not the three
Speaker 1: point shot, not the turnaround jumper, not the floater in
Speaker 1: the lane. His ability to make plays for his teammates.
Speaker 1: And he was magnificent as a playmaker in that series.
Speaker 1: And then on defense, he's arguably the best defensive player
Speaker 1: in the world. He can protect the rim like Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: He can cover on the perimeter like he's Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: He plays hard all the time, so you can use
Speaker 1: him as a foundational piece in the regular season. He's
Speaker 1: He's a Swiss army knife that can do anything. I
Speaker 1: think there's a gap between him and the next guy.
Speaker 1: I used to think there was like a top tier
Speaker 1: stars and it was like Lebron, it's death, you know,
Speaker 1: Johannis and k D and like maybe Kauai if he's healthy. Right,
Speaker 1: But now, to me, it feels like Yanni's kind of
Speaker 1: took that leap, and then the tier below it, it
Speaker 1: feels like steps on top of that tier, but everyone
Speaker 1: else has kind of jumbled in down there. I have
Speaker 1: I I have not seen a player be able to
Speaker 1: dominate a game physically on both ends of the floor
Speaker 1: like this since Lebron, and I think I think he
Speaker 1: goes into this season as the as the definitive best
Speaker 1: basketball player alive. And I do think him where the
Speaker 1: healthy uh Bucks team with one additional pieces the biggest
Speaker 1: threat to the Warriors. That said, I still think the
Speaker 1: Warriors are the favorite next year. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. Like I said, we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into some NBA draft stuff this week. Please
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you
Speaker 1: guys can see me breakdown at least just what my
Speaker 1: game plan is for the summer. You get some announcements
Speaker 1: there and you'll know what's coming. As always, I sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys to support and I will see you
Speaker 1: in a couple of days volume