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Speaker 1: All right, switching it up for the next couple of
Speaker 1: weeks from John Middlecoff to Hoops Tonight lead guy Jason
Speaker 1: Timp who has We're still proud of Jason because not
Speaker 1: only does kick ass and work his butt off, but
Speaker 1: when we landed him, we thought he was really good
Speaker 1: and we couldn't believe he didn't have a larger audience.
Speaker 1: Soon enough, he's got a larger audience, so he does
Speaker 1: a great job. Has grown a wicked mustache since she's
Speaker 1: been at the volume, as well a confidence mustache, which
Speaker 1: if you have a guitar and you can play, you
Speaker 1: gotta have a mustache. So first of all, it's great
Speaker 1: to have you back. So here's what was established in
Speaker 1: the regular season and we know more than any sport
Speaker 1: because of the duration of it, the regular season doesn't
Speaker 1: quite have the intensity of the postseason. I always say
Speaker 1: there's about a dozen regular season games that I go okay,
Speaker 1: that one mattered, that you get them occasionally, a Saturday
Speaker 1: night game, a big TV game. So what's been established.
Speaker 1: Wemby's phenomenal and could be a top five player in
Speaker 1: the league by next year. Jalen Brunson is a bona
Speaker 1: fide star. Ok Se is the best young team and
Speaker 1: for the next six to eight years, those draft picks
Speaker 1: and those players, they're going to bear the top of
Speaker 1: the West. Boston's the deepest team in the league. Nice mix,
Speaker 1: mostly of veterans. Porzingis has really become a different player
Speaker 1: than he was five or six years ago. Denver's probably
Speaker 1: the best team, best starting five. And then there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of questions, you know, one of the I pushed
Speaker 1: back a lot on this and I've covered round. If
Speaker 1: I had an MVP vote, Jalen Brunson gets consideration. Jokich
Speaker 1: could be the favorite. But I was thinking about this
Speaker 1: watching him this past week because I already started zoning
Speaker 1: in to all the top teams on Luca so statistically
Speaker 1: insane could be your MVP. Arguably, of all the fifty
Speaker 1: plus win teams, he has the weakest roster. He solved,
Speaker 1: at least for the time being, the Kyrie issue and
Speaker 1: the mavericks of the hottest team in the league at
Speaker 1: the most significant time of the league. Right. We know
Speaker 1: the playoffs mean more, but the last fifteen games of
Speaker 1: the regular season, you really you can feel who's playing
Speaker 1: uphill and who's playing downhill. If you had an if
Speaker 1: I had an MVP vote, I think I would think
Speaker 1: long and hard about Luca. Let's start with that. To you,
Speaker 1: who's the regular season MVP.
Speaker 3: Well, to your point about getting hot at the right
Speaker 3: time of the year, Almost everybody I talked to that
Speaker 3: I trust about basketball, when you talk to them about
Speaker 3: their top contenders, everyone's got or Denver, Boston, one, two,
Speaker 3: and then the consensus is Dallas had three. That's the
Speaker 3: type of foothold they've gained around the league. Now they're
Speaker 3: respected as a team that is considered a legitimate chance
Speaker 3: to win the title. And you're right, I think they
Speaker 3: do have the most limited supporting cast of the group
Speaker 3: of teams that we kind of consider seriously at the
Speaker 3: top of the league. Now, the thing MVP's tricky because
Speaker 3: typically there's a large gap in the standings between Dallas
Speaker 3: and Denver. It's like six games if I remember correctly.
Speaker 3: Typically when you see a team that's not in that
Speaker 3: like super high end record area of the league, like
Speaker 3: fifty five plus wins, typically it's because there's not a
Speaker 3: traditional MVP candidate there for some reason, like it's a
Speaker 3: Jason Tatum that's leading one team, or it's a you know,
Speaker 3: like there's usually a limitation there. And so then you
Speaker 3: look below that and you find your guy who's leading
Speaker 3: a limited squad, whether it's a Russell Westbrooker, it's a
Speaker 3: or it's a Luka Doncic. In a case like this,
Speaker 3: the thing is is like as much as Lucas had
Speaker 3: to deal with Jamal Murray's miss more than a fourth
Speaker 3: of the season, Yea and Nicole Yoka just kept them
Speaker 3: right in the mix there. Jokicchen just about every major
Speaker 3: national TV game this year, as clearly demonstrated he's still
Speaker 3: the best player in the league. So for me, like,
Speaker 3: even though I view Lou, I put him second, I
Speaker 3: put Luca second. I just can't justify the gap in
Speaker 3: the standings and the fact that I think Jokic is
Speaker 3: playing at a similar level, if not a touch higher anyway.
Speaker 3: But I think Luca has a legitimate case, and I
Speaker 3: think you got to throw Shay in there too. I
Speaker 3: think Shane is a legitimate case as well. But I
Speaker 3: think Lucas gonna win it, and I think he deserves it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and actually Luca this Kic, I mean, excuse me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Lucas played better defense this year. If
Speaker 1: you look at the efficiency numbers on defense his steals,
Speaker 1: you know, he's never going to be a really great,
Speaker 1: twitchy defender. And I would argue this, I don't need
Speaker 1: him to be. Listen, bro, give me thirty three a
Speaker 1: night with your offensive efficiency, you know, like Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: We'll cover you somewhere. We'll have a room protector. I
Speaker 1: don't need Luca to be a great defender. You know,
Speaker 1: when you have Giannis's athletic ability in size, then you're
Speaker 1: kind of demanding I need the effort. I will say
Speaker 1: this about Luca that I don't know in my life.
Speaker 1: It took Kobe a few years that he was a
Speaker 1: more efficient score. It was a wild He was like
Speaker 1: Josh Allen is a rookie quarterback. You knew it was there,
Speaker 1: but he was wild. I don't know in my lifetime
Speaker 1: if anybody has ever walked into this league and thirty
Speaker 1: games into it, you said to yourself, and I'm maybe
Speaker 1: it was Kareem. This is before my time, right, I
Speaker 1: don't really remember when he broke in with Milwaukee. I
Speaker 1: didn't watch sports till like seventy two, seventy three, seventy
Speaker 1: one the Bucks won the title. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've ever seen a player walk in and by the
Speaker 1: All Star break of the first year, I remember saying, like,
Speaker 1: is he going to be a top five score? Ever?
Speaker 1: Like he reminds me like, obviously he's not highly vertical.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he I'm talking Jordan Lebron everybody
Speaker 1: is he maybe the greatest score, the most unstoppable score.
Speaker 1: He gets any shot he wants, every time down the floor.
Speaker 1: It's almost his girth, his lack. You know, he's not
Speaker 1: d Wade when you look at him, he's at times puffy.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to describe him. He is just
Speaker 1: an automatic bucket, always gets it shots. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what his comp is.
Speaker 3: What is his comp so honestly, like when it comes
Speaker 3: to his size, the guy he reminds me the most
Speaker 3: of is Lebron and I know that they don't have
Speaker 3: a ton of similarities in their actual play style, but
Speaker 3: the main thing is that this is actually something we're
Speaker 3: going to talk about when we get to the Lakers.
Speaker 3: But like when you try to ball pressure big players,
Speaker 3: that plays right into their advantage. Like if you get
Speaker 3: physical with me and I have a size advantage on you,
Speaker 3: I can pivot, use angles to go right around you
Speaker 3: because I'm just bigger and I'm stronger, and so a
Speaker 3: lot of times, like if you ball pressure Luca, He's
Speaker 3: just going right around you and getting to the basket.
Speaker 3: And so, really, what's kind of taking his game to
Speaker 3: the next level this year is he used to be
Speaker 3: kind of like a mediocre pull up three point shooter. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he had some hot streaks against the Clippers in the postseason,
Speaker 3: but for the majority of his career he was a
Speaker 3: low thirty percent guy on that little step back three
Speaker 3: that he likes to take. Right this season, he's shooting
Speaker 3: just shy of forty percent on that shot. He's hitting
Speaker 3: that at an extremely high rate, and so you can't
Speaker 3: press him because he's too big and he'll just go
Speaker 3: right around you. But if you play off of him,
Speaker 3: he almost like tricks you by just leaning back a
Speaker 3: little bit and he can get just enough separation to
Speaker 3: get that three point shot over the top of you.
Speaker 3: And he's hitting it at damn near forty percent. And
Speaker 3: so that just put everybody in a bund And so
Speaker 3: we're getting career high points per game, career high assist
Speaker 3: per game, career high pull up three point shooting percentage,
Speaker 3: career high pull up jump shooting percentage. Like he's just
Speaker 3: hitting these marks that he wasn't hitting early in his
Speaker 3: career in terms of scoring efficiency to match his volume.
Speaker 3: And that's just put him in a different stratosphere as
Speaker 3: a player.
Speaker 1: Now, if you go look in recent years players that
Speaker 1: have his ball usage, like a James Harden, it just
Speaker 1: doesn't work. You just you do get to a point
Speaker 1: where you've played ninety five games. This is a taxing league,
Speaker 1: and now playoff basketball is much more physical. You play
Speaker 1: more minutes. They're all hard minutes. You know, Harden could
Speaker 1: never break through. You know, my takeaway is if you're
Speaker 1: gonna break through, if you're Luca it's gonna be the
Speaker 1: next six years. It's gonna be in your prime. It's
Speaker 1: like twenty three to twenty nine when you can put
Speaker 1: in these insane numbers. But do you worry about that
Speaker 1: because we do have a history that like players that
Speaker 1: came into the league like Kobe had to be like
Speaker 1: they had to figure it out, Like you just can't
Speaker 1: play like this all the time when the ball usage
Speaker 1: numbers are through the roof.
Speaker 3: I think it's more it's less about it's less about
Speaker 3: Luca's usage as a choice and more about necessity, Like
Speaker 3: he hasn't really this this with Kyrie Irving because Jalen
Speaker 3: Brunson when he was with the MAVs was not the
Speaker 3: same level that we think of now. Like obviously you
Speaker 3: and I are both use Jalen Brunson fans, and he
Speaker 3: was good when he was with Dallas. He was actually
Speaker 3: one of the few guys that was kind of reliable
Speaker 3: in that twenty twenty two playoff run when they want
Speaker 3: to the Western Conference finals, but they Kyrie's the first
Speaker 3: guy he's played with that's like a legitimate number two,
Speaker 3: and so he's getting more spot up opportunities. They're playing
Speaker 3: with more pace he's operating off the ball more, they're
Speaker 3: running more sets to get guys into advantage situations. They're
Speaker 3: kind of playing a more team style of basketball. Kyrie
Speaker 3: just missed a lot of time this year, and while
Speaker 3: he was out, Luca bumped up his usage the way
Speaker 3: that he typically does. But like, the truth of the
Speaker 3: matter is, like I've I've always looked at Luca as
Speaker 3: a guy who's just a winner and a savage competitor
Speaker 3: and a guy that would make the requisite adjustments as
Speaker 3: time goes on, He'll play on more talented teams in
Speaker 3: his career. Like you just mentioned at the start of
Speaker 3: the show, this is not necessarily the most talented offensive
Speaker 3: roster in the league in terms of ball handling. So
Speaker 3: like there will be a point in his career where
Speaker 3: he's going to have to legitimately share the load, and
Speaker 3: I expect him to do that. Well, a lot of
Speaker 3: times we put a circumstance on a player when really
Speaker 3: the player's just doing what he has to do to
Speaker 3: thrive in a certain place, right right.
Speaker 1: We saw Jokic do that. Luca did that when Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean both Luca and Jokicic this year had injured
Speaker 1: co stars. You know they had to carry the loan.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the Lakers. So I went and watched
Speaker 1: them in person, and I like to go watch I
Speaker 1: wanted to go watch Jalen Brunson in person. I want
Speaker 1: to see Jason Tatum in person. So I looked at
Speaker 1: the schedule I wanted to see. I thought maybe the
Speaker 1: last time I saw the Warriors, you know, you know, Clay,
Speaker 1: Steph and Draymond play. Although Clay is he's going to
Speaker 1: earn some money somewhere, he had a really good April.
Speaker 1: And you know, it really hit me watching them, is
Speaker 1: that when the Lakers made that Russell Westbrook move and
Speaker 1: had to get out of it. You can't get everything.
Speaker 1: When you're desperate, you can get something. So they got size,
Speaker 1: but they didn't get any shot creators. Austin Reeves was
Speaker 1: already there, Lebron was already there. And I tend to
Speaker 1: give coaches a little pass on their rotation, much like
Speaker 1: a defensive coach in the NFL. Sometimes Darvin ham Is
Speaker 1: is a little tone deaf offensively, like when you don't
Speaker 1: have Lebron and Austin both on the floor, there's not
Speaker 1: a lot of shot creation. You just need ad to
Speaker 1: be great. And so the game I went to, he
Speaker 1: did that. He had eight. He didn't play. Austin and
Speaker 1: Lebron at one point were off the floor. And it's say,
Speaker 1: bro Dlo kind of waits for you to get him
Speaker 1: a shot. That this this roster has no shot creators,
Speaker 1: and I do think that will be the Lakers undoing
Speaker 1: is that Lebron at this age, you can't ask him
Speaker 1: to play forty minutes of shot creation and there this
Speaker 1: team is long, They're good. It's a good basketball team.
Speaker 1: I mean, like the first half against the Pelicans, they
Speaker 1: were all playoff focused, like they were all playing playoff basketball.
Speaker 1: You're like, okay, they aren't taking the Pelicans to I
Speaker 1: mean it was just a physical mismatch. They made New
Speaker 1: Orleans work for every shot. They would get great passing,
Speaker 1: great ball movement. But when I do look at the Lakers,
Speaker 1: I think to myself, you can't ask a guy in
Speaker 1: your twenty one to be the shot creator, the playmaker,
Speaker 1: and to me, it won't be Darvin Ham. It's just
Speaker 1: it's a roster reality, isn't it.
Speaker 3: So the roster realities are the are the main genus
Speaker 3: of my take surrounding the Lakers as a playoff threat,
Speaker 3: and I felt the exact same about the Lakers as
Speaker 3: a playoff threat basically all season. Their position in the
Speaker 3: standings is Darvin Ham's fault. To put it simply, they
Speaker 3: were three and ten in the thirteen games after the
Speaker 3: N Season Tournament. Over that span, Darvin Ham was playing
Speaker 3: Cam Reddish and Toryan Prince fifty nine point two minutes
Speaker 3: per game, And when they signed Torrian Prince, I was excited.
Speaker 3: I like Toryan Prince. I think he's a solid rotational wink.
Speaker 3: He's like their eighth best player, and Darvin Ham was
Speaker 3: playing him massive minutes and starting him every single game
Speaker 3: over Ruy Hachimura, who's a better basketball player. Cam Reddish,
Speaker 3: there was never ever a case for him to be
Speaker 3: used the way he was, and in a league where
Speaker 3: everyone's talented and the margins are pretty small, and the
Speaker 3: Lakers were kind of a little relaxed post winning the
Speaker 3: N Season Tournament. They toasted some games off in that
Speaker 3: span when they probably shouldn't have because Darvin Ham's kind
Speaker 3: of galaxy branding the rotation. But you're right, the limits
Speaker 3: of the Lakers are the limitations of the Lakers. That
Speaker 3: was a standings related issue. They should not have to
Speaker 3: go to New Orleans on Tuesday and win a game,
Speaker 3: but they do because of that stretch. As far as
Speaker 3: the playoff setting goes, like, the main issue is when
Speaker 3: they run into specific types of matchups, specifically teams that
Speaker 3: bring real perimeter strength and length. And by the way,
Speaker 3: the Pelicans are one of these teams. Yep. They they
Speaker 3: can handle d Lo, they can handle Austin. Just Lebron
Speaker 3: is too big for all of those dudes. And when
Speaker 3: we talked about it earlier, you ball pressure Lebron. He
Speaker 3: can handle that because he's strong. And then the Pelicans
Speaker 3: are a turnover forcing, aggressive like forward attacking defense and
Speaker 3: so if you can get the ball behind it with
Speaker 3: high level playmaking, you can pick them apart. The Lakers
Speaker 3: won the first half points in the paint battle fifty
Speaker 3: to twelve in that game. That goes to show you
Speaker 3: just how crazy Lebron and Ad shutting down Zion and
Speaker 3: then on the other end of the floor, Lebron picking
Speaker 3: apart their aggressive attacking defense just allowed the Lakers to
Speaker 3: kind of pick them apart. But those specific types of matchups,
Speaker 3: those lankier wings, they can give d Lo and Austin problems,
Speaker 3: and then that puts too much on Lebron because the
Speaker 3: Lakers are actually a very good offense. They're third in
Speaker 3: offense since January seventh, that's a forty six game sample size.
Speaker 3: They're a very good offense, but it's very much everyone's involved.
Speaker 3: They get a ton of assists, it's lots of ball movement,
Speaker 3: a ton of us yeah today. Yeah, it's so bizarre
Speaker 3: watching them compared to last year, because like, there's a
Speaker 3: good chance they faced Denver in the first round again,
Speaker 3: and we're gonna pick Denver, but they could not be
Speaker 3: more different. Last year, they were a four out, one
Speaker 3: in brute force, spread, pick and roll, post up offense
Speaker 3: that was very defensively minded. Now they're actually this super
Speaker 3: high powered, spread, five out offense and they can't defend.
Speaker 3: So it's like a completely different Laker team that we're
Speaker 3: running into. But they have the same problem. They keep
Speaker 3: the Nuggets close and then the Nuggets out execute them
Speaker 3: at the end of the game. So they're more or
Speaker 3: less than the same situation, but they are a different
Speaker 3: team than they were last year.
Speaker 1: So a team that you know first round Denver is
Speaker 1: going to take on Phoenix and Phoenix. Neither team has
Speaker 1: a ton of depth. But Phoenix has been my disappointment
Speaker 1: in the league. I thought they were a team that
Speaker 1: would in kind of a passive regular season league. I
Speaker 1: thought they'd just shoot their way to a lot of
Speaker 1: wins and you'd have two of the three stars. Beale
Speaker 1: was hurt early in the season, much more than I
Speaker 1: knew he would be. But they have played together. There
Speaker 1: is some duplication in the offense. But it's years ago.
Speaker 1: I've said this before, years ago when people were saying
Speaker 1: Katie's better than Lebron. This is when he was with
Speaker 1: the Warriors winning MVPs, and I said, you got to
Speaker 1: add context to this. Like he's playing, it's just go
Speaker 1: hit buckets. They don't ask him to lead talk. He
Speaker 1: defended pretty well. He's always been a willing defender. But
Speaker 1: I'm like, they're not asking him do anything. He didn't
Speaker 1: have to talk after the game, before the game, he
Speaker 1: didn't have to be the soul of the team. He
Speaker 1: didn't have to be the the bouncer. Hey, you don't
Speaker 1: have to do anything, just get and that's what Katie does.
Speaker 1: By ways. He's a shot maker. He's great all time.
Speaker 1: But and I felt this with Kawhi, if you ask
Speaker 1: him to be a foundational piece, a leader, the barker
Speaker 1: in the clubhouse. I mean, I go to the Warriors
Speaker 1: Laker game and Draymond and they're out by twelve. Late
Speaker 1: is barking at players. Lebron's a coach and you watch
Speaker 1: KD and this is the difference. And I've said this
Speaker 1: with Kawhi. When the culture is set and you add
Speaker 1: somebody like Kawhi and Katie and they just get buckets
Speaker 1: and stops. They're all time players. But when you have
Speaker 1: to build something around that, because Booker clearly is not
Speaker 1: overly verbal. He's a scorer. That's okay. He's a scorer.
Speaker 1: And I look at this Phoenix situation and I'm like,
Speaker 1: they would be better with Lebron. This is just a
Speaker 1: guy to get a basket, and this team needs more
Speaker 1: than that. They've got guys Beale and Booker that can
Speaker 1: get a basket. They need they need this reservoir of
Speaker 1: Lebron's sort of vision leadership, this foundational personality. And so
Speaker 1: I look at Phoenix and I think, yeah, I just
Speaker 1: saw points. But all the good teams in this league,
Speaker 1: there's a there is there's a soul. Curry's a soul piece,
Speaker 1: yokiches you do. You don't even have to be overly verbal.
Speaker 1: But I look at Phoenix and I say, it'd be
Speaker 1: easy for me to just say, hey, Katie's been great,
Speaker 1: but this is sort of if you're a top eight
Speaker 1: player in the world, this is your team. And I
Speaker 1: don't care if Booker was here before. Booker wasn't winning
Speaker 1: for years and years before they brought Chris Paulan, he
Speaker 1: wasn't winning or a bad team. So I do look
Speaker 1: at Phoenix and say, some of this is just on KD.
Speaker 1: At times in your career, you have to be more
Speaker 1: than get a bucket guy, don't.
Speaker 3: You Yes, And that has been the primary issue for
Speaker 3: the Suns this year. I wouldn't necessarily put it just
Speaker 3: on KD. But like KD, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal,
Speaker 3: all three of them, they are guys that, like when
Speaker 3: they are engaged defensively, can be deeply impactful. Yeah defenders,
Speaker 3: even Devin Booker. Like Devin Booker is not the most
Speaker 3: physically gifted guard in the league. But like when I
Speaker 3: watch Suns film and they're good on defense, it's usually
Speaker 3: because Booker is engaged and he's talking, and he's like
Speaker 3: the communicator of the defense, like calling coverages out and
Speaker 3: that sort of thing. Kevin Durant like, for the record,
Speaker 3: I'm much higher on the Suns than most people. I
Speaker 3: had them. I had them fifth, I think in my
Speaker 3: contender rankings coming into this postseason run, and I specifically
Speaker 3: love them for the Denver matchup. I think that Nurkic
Speaker 3: is a big body that can make things tougher on
Speaker 3: Jokic than some other people. Another key part of the
Speaker 3: Suns is they have the best, in my opinion, the
Speaker 3: best spread driving kick type of team in the league.
Speaker 3: Grayson Allen on that week side has been the best
Speaker 3: three point shooter in the league. He's great at driving closeouts.
Speaker 3: Because of the three star build, you constantly have Bradley
Speaker 3: Beall off the ball or Kad off the ball or
Speaker 3: Devin Booker off the ball with an advantage, and so
Speaker 3: they can really spread teams out, and so teams like
Speaker 3: Denver that are like load up defensive teams that always
Speaker 3: defend pick and roll three on two and kind of
Speaker 3: load up on the strong side that skip passes open
Speaker 3: and Phoenix can pick you apart there, which is a
Speaker 3: big part of how Phoenix has had success against Denver
Speaker 3: this year. But to your point, they've been inconsistent there
Speaker 3: where it's like I watch them. I watch them today
Speaker 3: and they kick Minnesota's ass physically from the opening tip.
Speaker 3: I watch them against Denver and they kick Denver's ass
Speaker 3: physically from the opening tip. And then I watch them
Speaker 3: against the Clippers the other night and they get punched
Speaker 3: in the mouth and they've wilt, and it's like, so
Speaker 3: that's been. That's been very much their identities. They've been.
Speaker 3: They're they're like probably the widest range between floor and
Speaker 3: ceiling of all the teams that I've seen this year,
Speaker 3: because like, when you watch them on the right night,
Speaker 3: they look like a bona fide top tier championship contender,
Speaker 3: and then you watch them on another night and you're like,
Speaker 3: these guys aren't made of the right stuff, and so like, honestly,
Speaker 3: like the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. But
Speaker 3: I thought they demonstrated a lot of grit coming back
Speaker 3: and winning in Sacramento the other night and then going
Speaker 3: into Minnesota with a chance to get out of the
Speaker 3: plane and killing them the way that they did, and
Speaker 3: in the process sparing them from a Denver matchup as well.
Speaker 3: Like I thought that was a big time win for them.
Speaker 3: I'm generally higher on Phoenix than most people, but they've
Speaker 3: If there is a limitation, it's just they don't quite
Speaker 3: have a ton of like physical alpha dog in it,
Speaker 3: if that makes sense.
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Speaker 1: Colin for the people dot com slash Colin or dial
Speaker 1: pound law pound five to nine. That's for the people
Speaker 1: dot com slash Colin or pound law five to nine
Speaker 1: from your cell. Winning in the NBA is hard submitting
Speaker 1: an injury claim with Morgan and Morgan it's easy over
Speaker 1: in the East. I think I think the Knicks facing
Speaker 1: either the seventy six ers or the Heat, Now, who
Speaker 1: are you going to take in that play in game
Speaker 1: April seventeenth? Would you take Philly or Miami?
Speaker 3: That game is going to be so fun because both
Speaker 3: teams are going to be playing as hard as they
Speaker 3: possibly can do. Avoid Boston. That's the avoid, That's the
Speaker 3: avoid Boston Bowl. So I think here's the thing. My like,
Speaker 3: Philly's more talented, but Embiid hasn't really played a good
Speaker 3: team since you come back from injury. And then Eric
Speaker 3: Spolser is definitely gonna have some janky stuff to throw
Speaker 3: at him to try to make him feel uncomfortable. Complete
Speaker 3: and total toss up. Give me Eric Spolstra in a
Speaker 3: toss up game like that.
Speaker 1: So Jalen Brunson's interesting because he was a really good
Speaker 1: player with Luca. He was highly he was an effective player.
Speaker 1: And then he goes to New York and he's obviously
Speaker 1: more than that. But again, when you play with a
Speaker 1: high ball usage player, that's understood. You know, it's like
Speaker 1: a receiver playing with a better quarterback. You can be good.
Speaker 1: Everybody can see your hands, your routes. And then you
Speaker 1: play with them Mahomes or you know, a top quarterback
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, your numbers will go up. So
Speaker 1: we all knew Jalen Brunson could play in the last
Speaker 1: month and a half. And I think this is a
Speaker 1: lot of pro athletics. Is you know, Carl Anthony Towns
Speaker 1: got hurt for the t Wolves, and actually their pacing
Speaker 1: got better. Their three point shooting got better, which is
Speaker 1: not surprise because they had two bigs. Now you're down
Speaker 1: to one and go Bear's not a gifted offensive player.
Speaker 1: Karl Anthony town some times can take the air out
Speaker 1: of the ball like a lot of bigs, like you
Speaker 1: nump it down to So the pacing got better. So
Speaker 1: Julius Randal gets hurt for the Knicks, and to me,
Speaker 1: it's like when I watch him, it's like, oh, they
Speaker 1: they always feel like there is something in this league
Speaker 1: about you know, you got to get Julius's touches. You
Speaker 1: got to get certain guys their touches. You're paying him
Speaker 1: twenty four million, twenty eight million, Well, they don't give
Speaker 1: Julius Randall's touches, and that's more touches for Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting there watching them and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Like when I went and watched him in person,
Speaker 1: he is so much quicker than the TV gives him
Speaker 1: credit for. Like he you cannot stay in front of him.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't care about Villanova's second round or grinder.
Speaker 1: He's not a grinder. It's way more than that. He
Speaker 1: gets great looks. And I kind of look at the
Speaker 1: Knicks and I think to myself in and I don't
Speaker 1: trust Milwaukee. I'm I kind of like Philadelphia. But again,
Speaker 1: what is mbat he had twelve games? Is at what
Speaker 1: he played off the injury, I wouldn't be shocked. I
Speaker 1: look at the Knicks. I think in the East, a
Speaker 1: red hot star, a good coach, and a lot of
Speaker 1: be guys that defend and play hard. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't think they'd get to the conference finals. In
Speaker 1: the West. I mean, hell, Milwaukee's a five hundred team
Speaker 1: against the West. What do you make of the Knicks
Speaker 1: over the next three weeks?
Speaker 3: So I want to preface this by saying I love
Speaker 3: the Knicks. I think they have the best basketball character
Speaker 3: of any team in the league right now? Do you
Speaker 3: mean super fun to watch? What that means to me
Speaker 3: is like doing the right thing on a day day out. Basis,
Speaker 3: all the players are engaged, everyone's bought in, everyone plays
Speaker 3: their role. Their leaders a great leader, never too high
Speaker 3: and never too low. They bring consistent effort, they just do.
Speaker 3: They do all the right things. And I love that
Speaker 3: about them as a team. And there is something to
Speaker 3: be said about Julius Randall coming out of the lineup
Speaker 3: and that leading towards less of some of the ugly
Speaker 3: things we've seen from the York Ard the years, because
Speaker 3: Julius Randall, he has a tendency like things don't go asway,
Speaker 3: misses a couple shots, he'll take defensive possessions off, He'll
Speaker 3: pout like that's that's something Julius Randall's been known to
Speaker 3: do at times. Right, So, like there's been a lot
Speaker 3: of upside in a regular.
Speaker 1: See he's not been a great playoff guy, he's exactly
Speaker 1: really struggle.
Speaker 3: In Julius Randalls defense, he's had some injuries when he's
Speaker 3: gotten to the postseason and is usually playing a little
Speaker 3: banked up. But yes, he's had a really rough playoff
Speaker 3: career to this point. Here's the problem. Like, I think
Speaker 3: we both agree that like the future of the Knicks,
Speaker 3: Van probably doesn't involve Julius Randel to probably do something
Speaker 3: different there. But strictly within the context of this season,
Speaker 3: it's this simple. In a playoff setting, you can really
Speaker 3: throw the kitchen sink at a team that all operates
Speaker 3: through one star, and there's only so much that effort
Speaker 3: and energy and focus and basketball character can make up for.
Speaker 3: And the main stat to kind of like drive that
Speaker 3: point home is that as good as the Knicks have
Speaker 3: been this year against teams in the top ten in
Speaker 3: point differential, they are seven and seventeen, and they have
Speaker 3: the fourteenth worst point differential themselves in those matchups. So like,
Speaker 3: they play really hard, they win all the games they're
Speaker 3: supposed to win, and then they run into the teams
Speaker 3: have more firepower and they lose. That's pretty much the
Speaker 3: issue with the Knicks. So spectum, I have a ton
Speaker 3: of optimism about the future. They're super well positioned for
Speaker 3: a trade if they want to make a trade this summer.
Speaker 3: They're in a great spot. But like, do I think
Speaker 3: they're gonna go on some sort of magical playoff run?
Speaker 3: Not necessarily, And honestly, Colin like, there's another question should
Speaker 3: we should be asking, is Boston just gonna murder everyone
Speaker 3: in the Eastern Conference?
Speaker 1: Well, I think Philadelphia is interesting because they have enough
Speaker 1: offensive firepower that you know, if Boston goes up to
Speaker 1: oh and they go on the road to Philly, Philly
Speaker 1: brings you know, all gas, no breaks, crowds, crazy win
Speaker 1: game three, then you get a close game in Game four,
Speaker 1: and the Boston is not a bad close game, clutch
Speaker 1: time team, but they're not always great. They're not bad,
Speaker 1: but they're not always great. Whereas Denver feels like every
Speaker 1: big TV game that's close, they end up winning the game,
Speaker 1: like every I watched the Minnesota on the other night
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, this is like the hell of
Speaker 1: an effort by Minnesota.
Speaker 3: In five seconds and then it wasn't right.
Speaker 1: So like Denver's And by the way, some of that's
Speaker 1: justchampionship teams. They just they just know who to go to.
Speaker 1: So I think Boston's gonna rue. I think they will
Speaker 1: run through the East. A team that's fascinating to me,
Speaker 1: and I do think they could get knocked off by Indiana.
Speaker 1: Probably don't, but could is Milwaukee. So because of trade swaps,
Speaker 1: pick swaps and getting Dame and Drew Holliday, they don't
Speaker 1: have any first round picks. They're the oldest team in
Speaker 1: the league. I mean, Bobby Portis at twenty nine is
Speaker 1: the kid. So they're old. They have no first round picks.
Speaker 1: The Damiannest thing is not terribly efficient. You've got it.
Speaker 1: I've got it. They're a worse defensive team. And so
Speaker 1: my takeaway, and now they've run through coaches now they're
Speaker 1: on Doc, so you can't you can't go back to
Speaker 1: blaming the coach. My take is, what if they lose
Speaker 1: to Indiana. I mean, they got a first round picks,
Speaker 1: they don't have a lot of tradable pieces. I mean,
Speaker 1: you could move off Dame and again Dames somebody that
Speaker 1: has a market. You know, Dame is still an excellent
Speaker 1: late shot clock score. But Milwaukee's fascinating to me. What
Speaker 1: if they lose to Indiana and that'll be a good
Speaker 1: series much. You know, a younger an athletic, younger team.
Speaker 1: What does Yiannis do I Adrian Griffin, he ran him
Speaker 1: out of town. You can't run Doc Rivers out of town.
Speaker 1: I mean owners at some point that dead coaching money.
Speaker 1: It's like at some point they lose patience. Where is
Speaker 1: Milwaukee if they lose? What do you do? Well?
Speaker 3: First of all, I think this whole situation is a
Speaker 3: great example of why like you should not fire your
Speaker 3: coach unless you know exactly what you're going to do next,
Speaker 3: because because that can you could put yourself in this
Speaker 3: particular predicament. I So before we look forward to this summer,
Speaker 3: I'm not ready to write them off yet. For the record,
Speaker 3: I will be picking Indiana. Even when Giannis was healthy
Speaker 3: this year, the Bucks went one and three against Indiana.
Speaker 3: It's a bad matchup for them. The Bucks are probably
Speaker 3: the slowest team in the league and the Pacers are
Speaker 3: probably the fastest team in the league. So like it
Speaker 3: is a complete foot speed mismatch. They kill them in rotation,
Speaker 3: they kill them in transition. They it's just a nightmare
Speaker 3: for Milwaukee. So I'm gonna be picking Indiana. But let's
Speaker 3: just say, for instance, that somehow Dame goes crazy, they
Speaker 3: keep it at two to one, Giannis comes back in
Speaker 3: Game four, they somehow managed to advance. Did you know
Speaker 3: the best lineup in basketball this year to play at
Speaker 3: least five hundred minutes is the Milwaukee Bucks starting lineup,
Speaker 3: So Brook Lopez, Damian Leather, Chris Middleton, Yannis, and Tenna
Speaker 3: Kumpo Malik Beasley in five hundred and ninety nine minutes
Speaker 3: this year outscoring team outscoring team is by fifteen point
Speaker 3: one points per one hundred possessions. Awesome on both ends
Speaker 3: of the floor. They've been literally the best lineup in
Speaker 3: the league. So like, now there's some context there. They've
Speaker 3: struggled in specific matchups. They beat the crap out of
Speaker 3: some of these bad teams in the Eastern Conference at
Speaker 3: the bottom of the East is really weak, which kind
Speaker 3: of pumps up a lot of these kinds of numbers.
Speaker 3: But like, it's not the door. There's just a tiny
Speaker 3: little crack in the door there for Milwaukee that they
Speaker 3: might be able to swing through this year. That set
Speaker 3: I am. I'm a big believer in like when you've
Speaker 3: got superstars, it creates small achievable roles around them, So
Speaker 3: you've got a superstar guard. And I for the record,
Speaker 3: you were talking about Brunson. I think Brunson's probably leaped
Speaker 3: left Dame as probably the second best small guard in
Speaker 3: the league behind Stephan. Now you just go Stephan then Dame.
Speaker 3: I think it's probably Stephan then Brunson now at this point,
Speaker 3: but like Dame is still really really good. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: then Yannis obviously still top five player in the league.
Speaker 3: So it's not completely outside of the realm of possibility
Speaker 3: that you couldn't make a couple of smart trades this
Speaker 3: summer to try to bring in some speed and then
Speaker 3: try to run this thing back. I think they'll give
Speaker 3: it one more shot. Now. If it fails after that,
Speaker 3: then you're in crisis mode because you better come up
Speaker 3: with something or Jannis is gonna be asking for a
Speaker 3: trade and they don't have a lot in the way
Speaker 3: of assets. But again, like for the same reason that
Speaker 3: Jared Vanderbilt is just kind of a cast in for
Speaker 3: the Lakers, but because they desperately need a perimeter defender,
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, he looks awesome, Yeah, ruey hotcha Murau.
Speaker 3: They don't have any forwards, so they finally get a forward,
Speaker 3: and Ruin looks awesome, Like you find some speed, a
Speaker 3: guard that can defend next to Dame, you find a
Speaker 3: legitimate front court athlete who can defend next to Giannis,
Speaker 3: so that you can go back to Giannis at the
Speaker 3: five lineups and have some success. Like if they find
Speaker 3: some speed this summer, I think they could be right
Speaker 3: back in the mix.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to a really interesting team,
Speaker 1: the Warriors. So one of the things I said, and
Speaker 1: I'm just throwing it out there to reach probably, but
Speaker 1: when I watched him in person, and if you watched April,
Speaker 1: it was almost as if Steve Kerr was sending a
Speaker 1: message to Joe Lake of the owner, we know you
Speaker 1: don't want to pay Clay, and we know Orlando's gonna
Speaker 1: make a run at him. We really need him. Pods
Speaker 1: is good, a lot of energy, He's not quite as refined.
Speaker 1: And you start watching them in person, and they run
Speaker 1: a lot of plays through Clay a lot, and it's
Speaker 1: like coaches don't have to. And I thought Clay was
Speaker 1: washed last year. But when I watched the Warriors, my
Speaker 1: take is when I came out of that game, I
Speaker 1: thought their their core, that they don't want to move
Speaker 1: is Steph Claye Raymond and Pods and they would, they
Speaker 1: would move all their size for a big even if
Speaker 1: it was Karl Anthony Towns. Is that they've tried to.
Speaker 1: I mean, Chris Paul was effective. He's been effective despite
Speaker 1: you know, mid range guy limited. I kind of look
Speaker 1: at Golden State where I think they experimented this year
Speaker 1: and Steph was remarkable. But Kaminga doesn't have a closing package.
Speaker 1: He's just really long and twitchy and athletic. But you
Speaker 1: put him around the rim, you give him the ball,
Speaker 1: he's got somebody behind him. He doesn't have any package.
Speaker 1: He doesn't really know what he's doing. He's just talented,
Speaker 1: right like. And so I think Golden State thought this year.
Speaker 1: My take is they thought this year was going to
Speaker 1: be better. And I look at him now and I'm like,
Speaker 1: not only is the dynasty over, it needs a huge swing.
Speaker 1: To me, like a huge swing. Do you view it
Speaker 1: that way?
Speaker 3: I one hundred percent agree. It's far like Kaminga. You
Speaker 3: put it perfectly like I'm actually I'm actually really high
Speaker 3: in Kaminga's ceiling, like people can't guard him, and it
Speaker 3: like they can't keep him in front with that fouling
Speaker 3: and transitional long run, oh yeah, and in transition, like
Speaker 3: and he's also pretty good on ball defender already. So
Speaker 3: like I think in the long run, like five years
Speaker 3: from now, Jonathan Kamenka is going to be a really
Speaker 3: useful player in this league and potentially even an All Star.
Speaker 3: Like that's the type of potential I think he has.
Speaker 3: But like, no matter what happens this summer, whether it's
Speaker 3: Clay goes to Orlando or Clay stays, or they decide
Speaker 3: to trade this guy, or do they decide to trade
Speaker 3: that guy, regardless, what we cannot do again is do
Speaker 3: the whole Steph is the only guy on the team
Speaker 3: who's a high level offensive player. We can't. We can't
Speaker 3: do that anymore because, like, like to give you an example,
Speaker 3: like in twenty twenty two, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole
Speaker 3: kind of combined to be that guy. Yeah, and then
Speaker 3: they both kind of fell apart and then traded Jordan
Speaker 3: pool away. Andrew Wiggins has shown bursts of being capable
Speaker 3: of doing some of that, but not really. And again
Speaker 3: it was both of them. It was always both of
Speaker 3: them that kind of put that together. So like, if
Speaker 3: you're gonna go with Steph Clay, which I think is doable,
Speaker 3: you absolutely have to somewhere in that starting five, closing five,
Speaker 3: whatever your five best players, there has to be another
Speaker 3: guy who can be a reliable night in, night out
Speaker 3: shot creator. It has to happen. It's been way too long. Yeah,
Speaker 3: at the beginning of the dynasty, it was Clay because
Speaker 3: he was more springy and he could do more moving
Speaker 3: than Kevin Durant came in. Then when Clay got hurt
Speaker 3: and Kevin Durant left, Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole kind
Speaker 3: of filled that void. Those guys are not in that
Speaker 3: void anymore. And it's been a huge issue, and like
Speaker 3: the book is out, like part of the reason that
Speaker 3: Golden State has struggled this year. Teams have figured out
Speaker 3: Steph's the only guy. Throw everything at him, ball pressure
Speaker 3: him all game long, wear him down, blitz him on
Speaker 3: ball screens, do everything you can to wear him down.
Speaker 3: The other guys will probably fall apart at some point,
Speaker 3: and that's been what's happened. And like that Pelicans game
Speaker 3: was a great example. It's like, you know, Tray Jackson
Speaker 3: Davis had a really nice season and he's been a
Speaker 3: really useful rookie. Brandon pa Ziemski has been a really
Speaker 3: useful rookie. Klay Thompson's had a great year. But it's
Speaker 3: like when push comes to shove, it's like, if Steph
Speaker 3: isn't making everything, they just they don't have an option.
Speaker 3: It's even at the end of that game, the only
Speaker 3: reason it was close was Steph was sinking bombs from
Speaker 3: twenty five feet with three hands in his face. So like,
Speaker 3: at a certain point this summer, they've got to go
Speaker 3: after somebody, and the guy that I think they should
Speaker 3: be going after, Let's imagine Luca starting on Saturday or
Speaker 3: Sunday next week, just eviscerates the Clippers and puts them
Speaker 3: to bed five games, six.
Speaker 1: Game, and I'm starting to think this is that's what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen.
Speaker 3: It very well is on the table, especially if kawiser,
Speaker 3: because like, forget about the results of the series. Let's
Speaker 3: say Kawi just doesn't go again, and now we're were
Speaker 3: literally his last three playoff runs that he got to
Speaker 3: he couldn't finish. Like at a certain point, Ballmer is
Speaker 3: going to be like, I done, I'm done with these guys.
Speaker 3: We need to go in a different direction, right, Paul
Speaker 3: George one year left on his deal. I think that's
Speaker 3: the guy. If you're Golden State, that you throw the
Speaker 3: kitchen sink at and you bring in Paul George and
Speaker 3: you make a run at it with Steph Clay, Paul George,
Speaker 3: Draymond Green in a center, and then I think that
Speaker 3: team is Like, I think that team is easily in
Speaker 3: the mix at the top of the Western Conference, wouldn't you?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think everybody has to be on
Speaker 1: Steph's timeline. I like Kaminga, he's not really on the timeline?
Speaker 1: Why has been? Absolutely wasn't Jordan Poole's immature Pods is
Speaker 1: your classic play more than one year of college. He's
Speaker 1: not quite there. He's a good player, really moves like Steph.
Speaker 1: He's just moving constantly. He's quicker right now. He's twitchier
Speaker 1: than Clay. But Clay is again, Clay is just such
Speaker 1: a refined player. He's been in so many big Spot
Speaker 1: and Pods is just you can tell he'll see things
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, he's never seen that before. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like he's like a kid that had like
Speaker 1: too many skittles. He's got a lot of energy, a
Speaker 1: lot of it's productive, but you're like, slow down, you know,
Speaker 1: he's just not quite there. But I think he's been
Speaker 1: a really nice pickup for them, and I do think
Speaker 1: he is what they view as like the replacement for Clay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think. I think Paul George. I've always been a
Speaker 1: Paul George fan. In fact, even the playoff p where
Speaker 1: he gets crap, his playoff numbers are solid. I mean
Speaker 1: this idea that he plummets like he's a Roden baseball,
Speaker 1: where it's a different player, or Bonds in Pittsburgh when
Speaker 1: he was a pirate and he go to the playoffs
Speaker 1: and he was a different player. Paul's a good playoff player.
Speaker 1: At the bottom line, he's an a minus player regular
Speaker 1: season B plus player in the playoffs. For the record,
Speaker 1: you play better players, so very few guys are. You know,
Speaker 1: Jordan's the classics. Oh he's better. Now Lebron's done that.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, Lebron cares, he's more focused. So I
Speaker 1: think that would I think that would work. I want
Speaker 1: to go back to what you talked about Boston. So
Speaker 1: Boston is and this is a trend that I'm noticing
Speaker 1: in the league. So they just signed Drew Holliday to
Speaker 1: a pretty pretty big deal considering his age. Jalen got
Speaker 1: a big deal, Tatum's getting it, and Porzingis's life for
Speaker 1: two years. So if you look at what Boston's doing,
Speaker 1: Denver's doing kind of feels like Golden State's going to
Speaker 1: do eventually. Lakers to some degree, is that because the draft.
Speaker 1: There's two ways to look at the draft. It either
Speaker 1: gives you a lottery ticket Houston. Okay, see it's not
Speaker 1: about now, it's you're playing the lottery. Or if you're
Speaker 1: a really good team like Denver, let's go get Christian
Speaker 1: Brown from Kansas, multiple year starter, come in productive day one,
Speaker 1: lower ceiling. We know what he is, but we need
Speaker 1: eighteen minutes a night. He has to play in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So I kind of look at Boston and what they're
Speaker 1: doing is they're like, we don't really care about our bench.
Speaker 1: If Derek White's our fight, We're just going to keep
Speaker 1: these guys for the next two years. If we win
Speaker 1: a title, we all keep our jobs. Denver the same thing.
Speaker 1: Phoenix doesn't have much of a bench. Golden State, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a trend in the NBA is
Speaker 1: where we look at the NBA maybe ten years ago,
Speaker 1: we thought, oh, the draft is about getting the next blank,
Speaker 1: and the good teams are like, no, let's just diversify
Speaker 1: our portfolio. Let's get a Villanova guy. We know what
Speaker 1: he is. He's eleven a night, but he's a grown up.
Speaker 1: He's been coached hard, and so I do think that's
Speaker 1: where college basketball and the NBA have an interesting symmetry.
Speaker 1: And that's when I'm watching Boston last week signed Drew Holliday.
Speaker 1: I'm like, they're doing what Denver's doing is we just
Speaker 1: don't really care about our bench. We're just gonna draft
Speaker 1: an old college guy at the end of the first round.
Speaker 1: And your thoughts on it looks like that's what's happening
Speaker 1: in the league, is that bench. You know, we're just
Speaker 1: gonna load up on stars and go draft guys from
Speaker 1: Villanova or Gonzaga that we don't think I have huge ceilings.
Speaker 1: That's what it looks like Boston's doing is we're gonna
Speaker 1: go three years on this thing, and if we end
Speaker 1: up not winning, we have to blow this thing up.
Speaker 1: But we don't really care about our bench.
Speaker 3: I think it depends on how good your scouting department is.
Speaker 3: Like if I'm getting Christian Brown and I'm getting like
Speaker 3: Peyton Watson, who's been a revelation for them. I don't
Speaker 3: know if you've watched that six block game he had
Speaker 3: against the Timberwolves the other night, but that was ridiculous.
Speaker 3: But like they obviously like as long as you're getting
Speaker 3: quality players with those picks, I think it makes sense
Speaker 3: for the most part because they're way less expensive. So
Speaker 3: for instance, like let's say you wanted to go after
Speaker 3: Dorian Finney Smith from the Nets this deadline, you had
Speaker 3: to include a first round draft pick. You had to
Speaker 3: include salary ballast. He's coming back, he's making you know,
Speaker 3: I think he was making like somewhere between ten and
Speaker 3: twenty million. I can't remember the exact number off the
Speaker 3: top of my head, but like you have to factor
Speaker 3: that into the cap sheet. There's all these different machinations
Speaker 3: that come into play when you're trying to bring in
Speaker 3: a player that's a veteran to upgrade a roster. Whereas
Speaker 3: if you've got a good scouting department and you can
Speaker 3: find guys in the late first round, second round that
Speaker 3: can be contributors you can get them cheap. You don't
Speaker 3: have to use salary ballast, and it's the same use
Speaker 3: of the pick, right and so, and then there's always
Speaker 3: the flexibility of like, hey, if we want to turn
Speaker 3: around and trade Christian Brown day, we can and we
Speaker 3: can get something back from people are gonna view him
Speaker 3: as a prospect that's no different than you know, like
Speaker 3: Bruce Brown or like or guys like that, Like you
Speaker 3: sign him as Indiana, then you could trade him, right. So,
Speaker 3: Like there's I think that that's a big part of
Speaker 3: team building now is like you got to find out
Speaker 3: what your strength is and if you have a good
Speaker 3: scouting department, then trust those guys to make the picks right.
Speaker 3: As far as Boston goes, I love what they're doing too,
Speaker 3: because you know you and I talked about this a
Speaker 3: lot last year and the year before after Boston's flameouts, like,
Speaker 3: well they keep Tatum and Brown together? And I still
Speaker 3: to this day get questions from fans like, hey, should
Speaker 3: Boston keep Tatum and Brown together if they don't win
Speaker 3: the title this year? And what I've consistently said is
Speaker 3: with them being where they're at in their careers, you
Speaker 3: are more likely to experience a gain through their own
Speaker 3: individual development into their late twenties than you are through
Speaker 3: some sort of trade. And so honestly, I love what
Speaker 3: Boston's doing. Boston is saying we're gonna get one in
Speaker 3: these next few years. Give me Drew, gim me Derek,
Speaker 3: gim me Tatum, Brown, gimme Porzingis. We're gonna get one
Speaker 3: in these next few years. Might not be this year,
Speaker 3: might bet not be next year, but like, these guys
Speaker 3: are still getting better. Jaylen Brown could not score out
Speaker 3: of the post until this year. Now he's one of
Speaker 3: the best post up wings in the league. Jason Tatum
Speaker 3: every year has struggled with pull up three point shooting.
Speaker 3: He's shooting better with this pull up three point shot
Speaker 3: this year. Guys are getting better. They're going into their
Speaker 3: prime of their careers, and Boston has basically said, we're
Speaker 3: betting on continuity. We're betting on these older vets. They're
Speaker 3: gonna get at least one. Let's lock everybody in. And honestly,
Speaker 3: I think it's the right strategy and as long as
Speaker 3: they make sound moves on the margins to bring it.
Speaker 3: The other thing we didn't even mention for the young
Speaker 3: players that you get in the draft. They're high motor guys.
Speaker 3: There's not really a whole lot better you can do
Speaker 3: over the eighty two than a twenty two year old
Speaker 3: who's gonna play his ass off every night, as opposed
Speaker 3: to the twenty nine year old who's on a twelve
Speaker 3: million dollar deal, you know what I mean, or an
Speaker 3: older veteran guy. So I do like that strategy.
Speaker 1: All right. For the games that we know are going
Speaker 1: to take place, the series that will take place, we'll
Speaker 1: play picking a paragraph. So give me your pick and
Speaker 1: a paragraph. I'll take the Mavericks over the Clippers basically
Speaker 1: because Dallas right now, I feel I get more answers
Speaker 1: than questions. The Clippers, I get more questions than answers.
Speaker 1: Westbrook has been a very very good bench player, but again,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to be the difference in
Speaker 1: the series. I just feel like I know more from
Speaker 1: Dallas today. I have Dallas and six. You're picking paragraph.
Speaker 3: I took Dallas and six as well. I'd change that
Speaker 3: to seven if I knew Kawhi was healthy, because I
Speaker 3: think that Kawhi is kind of a really interesting matchup
Speaker 3: for Luca, kind of he can bring a force Luca
Speaker 3: to call it ball screens, which can cause some problems
Speaker 3: for the back end of Dallas's offense. I think the
Speaker 3: series ends with the Mavericks going small with Kleeba and
Speaker 3: PJ Washington on the floor together. They even killing teams
Speaker 3: with those two guys. I think Dallas goes small and
Speaker 3: wins it.
Speaker 1: I got him in six, Okay, I'll take Minnesota to
Speaker 1: beat Phoenix. I think it's a six game series. I
Speaker 1: don't really know exactly. I've watched actually a lot of
Speaker 1: Phoenix and a little of Minnesota, but I do think
Speaker 1: Minnesota they've done. They've been too consistently good to flame
Speaker 1: out in the first round. And when I watch Minnesota,
Speaker 1: and maybe the analytics tell me something different, but I
Speaker 1: feel like I kind of get the same team when
Speaker 1: I watch them play. They're highs lows. I kind of
Speaker 1: feel like I get effort, I get rim protection, I
Speaker 1: get ants production, I get Conley's brain power. I always
Speaker 1: feel they're prepared and well coached. With Phoenix, there's good
Speaker 1: nights and then they trail thirty five to four at
Speaker 1: home to the Clippers, and so I think Minnesota is
Speaker 1: a consistent team with a little bit of a ceiling.
Speaker 1: I think I take Minnesota in six picking a paragraph.
Speaker 3: I'm taking Phoenix in six. I'm really excited to watch
Speaker 3: today's game because very rarely do you get like a
Speaker 3: must win game to sample when you're prepping for a
Speaker 3: series where it's like, we get to actually watch forty
Speaker 3: eight minutes of the Wolves and Suns going at it,
Speaker 3: actually trying to win. So that's gonna be a really,
Speaker 3: really a good film session tomorrow. Main thing that stands
Speaker 3: out to me though, that the Suns shots super well.
Speaker 3: They got one point seven to six points per catch
Speaker 3: and shoot jump shot and that win over the Wolves today,
Speaker 3: so they definitely shot really, really well. Here's why I'm
Speaker 3: low on Minnesota, though. It's really simple. They are one
Speaker 3: of the worst offenses in the league when you get
Speaker 3: into late game situations because Anthony Edwards is twenty two
Speaker 3: years old and nobody else on the team can really
Speaker 3: consistently generate great shots, and so it's a lot of
Speaker 3: if he decisions, it's ant settling for pull up jump shots.
Speaker 3: And then weirdly enough, their defense falls apart. For as
Speaker 3: good of a defense as they've been, their defense falls
Speaker 3: apart in clutch situations. Because of the fact that Mike
Speaker 3: Conley's on the floor, Carl Towns is on the floor,
Speaker 3: you can find entry points to get their defense in rotation,
Speaker 3: and then it doesn't matter if Rudy go bears at
Speaker 3: the rim, if he's chasing some guy off the three
Speaker 3: point line in a driving kick situation, I think the
Speaker 3: Suns are going to spread him out and get better shots.
Speaker 3: I think they'll be able to slow down Minnesota's offense
Speaker 3: in the half court. I'm picking Phoenix and six.
Speaker 1: Let's go East Cleveland and Orlando. Orlando is maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit like the ok See of the West, young,
Speaker 1: really rising quickly. My guy, Jalen Suggs is an improved player,
Speaker 1: like a lot of people had him as a bust
Speaker 1: early last year. So Cleveland's been weird, Cleveland's going through something.
Speaker 1: I think I'd still take the Calves. I don't know
Speaker 1: that could be a seven game series. My picking paragraph
Speaker 1: Cleveland and seven. Something's wrong with them? What's your picking? Paragraph?
Speaker 3: These series are always tough to pick when everyone involved
Speaker 3: is so young and unexperienced that it's like so up
Speaker 3: in the air. Personnel favors Orlando. Orlando's an awesome offensive
Speaker 3: rebounding team. That is how New York beat Cleveland last year.
Speaker 3: They killed him on the offensive glass. Also, Cleveland is
Speaker 3: one of the most high volume pick and roll teams
Speaker 3: in the league. And your guy Jalen Suggs might be
Speaker 3: the best guard defender in the league. And so Donovan
Speaker 3: Mitchell is going to be in for a tough series
Speaker 3: with just an incredible individual defender on him. So all
Speaker 3: the personnel stuff points me towards Orlando. But Orlando is
Speaker 3: super young, and Cleveland got embarrassed last year and they
Speaker 3: know what the playoffs are like now, so I expect
Speaker 3: a lot of fight from them. I'm gonna go long
Speaker 3: series in gut check, I'm just gonna say magic. But
Speaker 3: we'll see after I watch some film.
Speaker 1: Milwaukee over Indiana. I think it's contrasting styles again, two
Speaker 1: of the three best players in Milwaukee. They'll probably get
Speaker 1: because it's a veteran team, they'll get the veteran team,
Speaker 1: whistle a little more manipulation from a Lopez and the
Speaker 1: Jannis and a Dame with the officials. It's one of
Speaker 1: these like this will be a series. My prediction is
Speaker 1: when it's over, Indiana'll be like you don't like us.
Speaker 1: We're a small market team. We got a job by
Speaker 1: the refs. But these older teams are pretty good, like
Speaker 1: the Clippers will be good in these situations. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take Milwaukee in six. What's your thought?
Speaker 3: I would take Milwaukee in seven if I knew Jannis
Speaker 3: was healthy. With Yannis being out, I just don't think
Speaker 3: the Bucks are a very good team. And if he
Speaker 3: misses three games in this series, it's possible that Indiana
Speaker 3: could be up to one with a game at home.
Speaker 3: You know, before Jannis even comes out, it comes back.
Speaker 3: So like with Yannis being out, I think the safe
Speaker 3: bet is Indiana. But if like Yannis plays and he's healthy,
Speaker 3: like I think, I would probably lean slightly towards Milwaukee,
Speaker 3: I'd pick Milwaukee in seven.
Speaker 1: So I'm really interested in a lot of the I mean,
Speaker 1: like Milwaukee losing early's fascinating. Steve Walmer, I thought when
Speaker 1: he brought Harden over. I was talking to Lawrence Frank
Speaker 1: about this. I bumped into him at dinner about a
Speaker 1: month ago, and I said, I thought the hardened thing
Speaker 1: was just for the arena. I'm like, you know, he's
Speaker 1: an LA guy. Westbrook's an LA guy. Paul George Quie.
Speaker 1: It's like La guys opening the new Arena, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: he's actually, you guys have been looking for a point
Speaker 1: guard forever. He actually lubricates things. It's in cole. When
Speaker 1: Kawhi is like trying to generate offense, It's like, no,
Speaker 1: it's not what he does. He can do it, but
Speaker 1: it's not what he does. And the hardened things sort
Speaker 1: of work. But you get James's weird personality again. He's
Speaker 1: he's an odd player. He's an odd, quirky guy. I think,
Speaker 1: much like the Bucks, if the Clippers flamed out, I
Speaker 1: think Balmer was an inpatient investor and impatient at Microsoft.
Speaker 1: Am I supposed to believe as a sports fan. Now
Speaker 1: you know he's suddenly going to be one of these
Speaker 1: long tarmac guys Like I think. No, I think the
Speaker 1: Clippers lose, and it's they don't get a lot of
Speaker 1: consistent effort. You think they blow the team up.
Speaker 3: I think that's completely on the table. I mean to
Speaker 3: put it simply, Colin, we could have four veteran teams
Speaker 3: blow up. This just just imagine some of these scenarios.
Speaker 3: Golden State loses in the play, which by the way
Speaker 3: Golden State. Even if they beat Sacramento. If the Lakers
Speaker 3: beat New Orleans, New Orleans has Golden State's number, there's
Speaker 3: a solid chance Golden State does not get out of
Speaker 3: this playing tournament. They could be facing a total rebuild.
Speaker 3: Let's say the Lakers beat the Pelicans, but then they
Speaker 3: go to Denver and just get killed. You don't think
Speaker 3: the Lakers are gonna be sitting there looking in the
Speaker 3: mirror like we just got swept, or the gentleman swept
Speaker 3: two years in a row. We got to rethink this.
Speaker 3: What if Phoenix loses to Minnesota. They just went all
Speaker 3: in on Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker and
Speaker 3: they had an iffy regular season, and what if they
Speaker 3: get smacked by Minnesota. Right. The Clippers, if they go
Speaker 3: out in flames, that could be a problem. The Bucks,
Speaker 3: if they go down in flames, that could be a problem.
Speaker 3: What about Miami. What if Miami loses to Philly and
Speaker 3: don't forget, Atlanta beat Miami in a playing game last
Speaker 3: year because they couldn't rebound with them. What if, like
Speaker 3: Chicago or Atlanta gets in there and knocks out Miami,
Speaker 3: Miami could be looking at this like, are we really
Speaker 3: going to run it back with Bam and Jimmy again
Speaker 3: when we struggle every regular season and then we just
Speaker 3: barely squeak by an upset peak in the postseason, Like
Speaker 3: this could be because of how deep the field is,
Speaker 3: because there are so many good teams, We're going to
Speaker 3: have a bunch of pissed off general managers and owners
Speaker 3: this summer. That's like a guarantee. It's just a question
Speaker 3: of who. There's going to be a lot of really
Speaker 3: unhappy fan bases in ownership groups this summer, and then
Speaker 3: all hell could break loose and we could have a
Speaker 3: bunch of trades and stuff should be fun.
Speaker 1: Well, we also don't have a terribly deep draft. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just it's not a deep draft. So in fact,
Speaker 1: they're saying it's it's it's it's that I think is
Speaker 1: that the Anthony Bennett Victor Ola Depot draft was that
Speaker 1: the that's about the worst draft.
Speaker 3: Point.
Speaker 1: In fact, I think go Beart was Rudy Gobert in
Speaker 1: that draft. He was late first. I think I think
Speaker 1: he was one of the best players in that draft.
Speaker 1: Am I right on that?
Speaker 3: I can't remember off the top of my head, but
Speaker 3: you're probably.
Speaker 1: I think Yannest was the best player out of that draft,
Speaker 1: and he went like eleven, twelve or thirteen.
Speaker 3: There were a bunch of good players that were deep
Speaker 3: in that draft, for sure, but the top of that
Speaker 3: draft was just.
Speaker 1: Awful, absolutely awful. Hoops tonight, Jason timp This is our
Speaker 1: first Let the games begin this week. The West is deep,
Speaker 1: the East is not a lot of drama with older
Speaker 1: teams like a Clippers, like a Milwaukee. All right, so
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk a lot over the next month. This
Speaker 1: is gonna get really fun midweek. Man, good seeing you.
Speaker 3: This is fun, Colin, looking forward to it.
Speaker 1: The volume. Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed
Speaker 1: the podcast, take a moment, rate and review.