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Speaker 1: throughout the season and the last not least, Like I
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Speaker 1: the YouTube comments. All right, let's talk some basketball Off
Speaker 1: the top a couple of questions regarding matchups for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: First question, as currently constructed, how do you think this
Speaker 1: roster of the Lakers would fare against the Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 1: in a seven game series? So At, I foolishly came
Speaker 1: up here before the first round matchup last year and
Speaker 1: said that the Wolves were the best possible matchup for
Speaker 1: the Lakers, and I could not have been more wrong.
Speaker 1: They were the worst possible matchup for the Lakers because
Speaker 1: of the massive gap in their athleticism and because of
Speaker 1: their ability to switch everything and make life harder on
Speaker 1: the Lakers ball handlers. They specifically played Austin Reeves into
Speaker 1: the worst playoff series of his young career. They wore
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic down over the course of games, and he
Speaker 1: was brutal in fourth quarters. It just it was just
Speaker 1: too much for them to handle. That said, as is
Speaker 1: always the case, these series are closer than they look. Right,
Speaker 1: just because the Wolves were a bad matchup for the
Speaker 1: Lakers doesn't mean the Lakers had no shot. They were
Speaker 1: there in Game three, they were there in Game four,
Speaker 1: you win one of those games, it could potentially look
Speaker 1: like a different series. I still think even after the
Speaker 1: addition of Marcus Smart and Deandrayton, the Wolves are still
Speaker 1: a bad matchup for the Lakers for the exact same reasons,
Speaker 1: but the Lakers are deeper now. The Lakers lost that
Speaker 1: series if you guys remember in fourth quarters running out
Speaker 1: of gas at the end of games, so improved depth
Speaker 1: obviously gives them a better shot. I also think an
Speaker 1: improved Luca gives them a better shot. So in short,
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers have a better chance to beat
Speaker 1: Minnesota this year than last year, but I would still
Speaker 1: much rather avoid them in the bracket all together because
Speaker 1: I still think it's a very bad matchup for them.
Speaker 1: Next question, mail bag Nuggets in five. The Lakers don't
Speaker 1: have the size. This team isn't beating the Nuggets. I
Speaker 1: actually think the Lakers matchup pretty well with Denver for
Speaker 1: one reason. The Nuggets are absolutely hopeless to guard Luka
Speaker 1: doncicin pick and roll, as we saw when they faced
Speaker 1: off last year and periodically throughout Luka Doncic's matchups with
Speaker 1: Jokic over the years. He's his ability to pull Jokich
Speaker 1: up to the level, but then surgically make every read.
Speaker 1: It just breaks Denver's defense. Now, the Nuggets are much
Speaker 1: better this year than they were last year, So at
Speaker 1: this point I would still pick the Nuggets to beat
Speaker 1: the Lakers in a series. But I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: have a puncher's chance to upset Denver because of Lucas's
Speaker 1: specific ability to pick their defensive defensive part. Another Lakers question,
Speaker 1: UK listener here love the pod. What's the trade you
Speaker 1: think another team would do centered around Ruy or Austin?
Speaker 1: I guess right now rather than at the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: that could significantly improve the Lakers and their athleticism without
Speaker 1: surrendering Polinka's beloved post Lebron picks. I do think and
Speaker 1: Andrew Wiggins trade would immediately make the Lakers a top
Speaker 1: tier contender. He would immediately address their athleticism and defense needs.
Speaker 1: He specifically, in my opinion, as one of like the
Speaker 1: top tier, if not second or second tier to top
Speaker 1: tier somewhere in that rain one of the top ten,
Speaker 1: like Apex defenders that you can put on an opposing
Speaker 1: star in a playoff series, and he can do it
Speaker 1: against multiple different types of stars. I also think he
Speaker 1: just makes a substantial upgrade in athleticism, which is what
Speaker 1: they would need. I also think he would play really
Speaker 1: well offensively off of Luca, and I think the Lakers
Speaker 1: could pull off that trade, including Dalton and maybe some
Speaker 1: second round compensation and not having to include their first
Speaker 1: round pick. But the Lakers seem uninterested in making that
Speaker 1: type of deal because of Andrew's age and because of
Speaker 1: their timeline without Wiggins if we take him out of
Speaker 1: the equation. I don't see a move this summer like
Speaker 1: that's readily available right now that the Lakers could make
Speaker 1: that would immediately vault them up in terms of their
Speaker 1: athleticism and their ability to contend for a title this season.
Speaker 1: I don't see it right now. The question for me
Speaker 1: is more whether or not in the regular season call
Speaker 1: it at the deadline. If this opportunity to present it itself,
Speaker 1: would the Lakers jump on it? And I don't think
Speaker 1: they will. I think they'll hold on, and that is
Speaker 1: the part that concerns me. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1: Aaron Nesmith, the player I've talked about quite a bit.
Speaker 1: I think Aaron is quite literally exactly what the Lakers need.
Speaker 1: He's a versatile point of attack defender that has the
Speaker 1: strength to guard multiple positions. He's an excellent three point
Speaker 1: shooter and also an excellent closeout attacker. Just in the
Speaker 1: playoffs last year, he converted spot up opportunities at one
Speaker 1: point two to one points per possession. That's very, very good.
Speaker 1: He's also an excellent athlete who can play above the
Speaker 1: rim and in transition, he's a substantial athletic upgrade on
Speaker 1: the perimeter. And he's twenty five years old, meaning he
Speaker 1: matches with Luca's timeline. I think he's a guy like
Speaker 1: if the Pacers came out the gates this year and
Speaker 1: they really struggled, and they realized they were further away
Speaker 1: than where they needed to be to get to where
Speaker 1: they want to go, if they decided to start getting
Speaker 1: off of some of their money for asset return, he's
Speaker 1: the kind of guy that I would be going after.
Speaker 1: The question is if that happens, will the Lakers be
Speaker 1: willing to put their first round pick on the table,
Speaker 1: And I don't think they will. I think they'll try
Speaker 1: to save it for Giannis, and I think that would
Speaker 1: be a mistake. We haven't talked enough about this, but
Speaker 1: to me, Luca is unique in the sense that I
Speaker 1: think he benefits. I think he would benefit from a
Speaker 1: secondary superstar less than other superstars would benefit from a
Speaker 1: secondary superstar. Why. Because Luca's skill set is so uniquely
Speaker 1: geared towards that advantage creation piece. There's a reason why
Speaker 1: Luca has been on like dead serious championship contenders with
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson as his secondary shot creator or with Kyrie
Speaker 1: or as a secondary shot creator, because Luca is so
Speaker 1: good at eating up so much usage that when it
Speaker 1: comes to having a super high powered offensive star next
Speaker 1: to him, there's just a little bit of a diminishing
Speaker 1: return there. I've talked about this before. I think a
Speaker 1: team with Luca and Nikola Jokic on the team would
Speaker 1: probably struggle because there'd be massive diminishing returns in terms
Speaker 1: of their offensive shot creation, and because they're both such
Speaker 1: poor athletes relative to the rest of the league that
Speaker 1: it just would make for a really slow team that
Speaker 1: would be very vulnerable to certain types of matchups. Luca
Speaker 1: and Giannis there's a little bit more utility, although I'd
Speaker 1: argue there's still some diminishing return there. With Luca, I
Speaker 1: think it actually makes the most sense to build a
Speaker 1: team that is stacked with high level role player talent
Speaker 1: and a guy, a guy that can mimic what Luca
Speaker 1: does to a lower extent against lesser talent and bench groups,
Speaker 1: or in the second half of possessions as like a
Speaker 1: second side guy. That is why Kyrie looked so good there.
Speaker 1: That is why Jalen Brunson looks so good there. I
Speaker 1: even think Austin could work. Austin's lesser athleticism is a
Speaker 1: little bit more of an issue, but I think even
Speaker 1: with Austin it could work as long as all of
Speaker 1: the rest of the roster is stacked with athleticism. I
Speaker 1: think really with Austin, the bigger issue is is he
Speaker 1: as reliable getting separation against elite playoff defenders as Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson was or as Kyrie Irving was. But like with Luca,
Speaker 1: I think it's more about finding just a guy who
Speaker 1: can be that secondary shot creator and then stacking him
Speaker 1: up with reliable role player talent. That's what I think
Speaker 1: you need to do to build around Luka Doncic, and
Speaker 1: I just don't think the Lakers see it that way.
Speaker 1: I think the Lakers look at it as like how
Speaker 1: do we be fun and competitive for a few years
Speaker 1: while we stack up assets to go after Giannis And
Speaker 1: I just don't necessarily think that's the best pathway again,
Speaker 1: And you know, Lakers fans have said this to me before.
Speaker 1: They go, well, Jason, that's how they've done it in
Speaker 1: the past, And you're not entirely wrong, right Like, you
Speaker 1: go get a Anthony Davis alongside Lebron James, for example,
Speaker 1: But I would argue, like, look at pau Gasol with
Speaker 1: respect to Kobe. Pagasol was a star, but he was
Speaker 1: a lower level star. He was not a guy that
Speaker 1: we were considering to be one of the top three
Speaker 1: or four players in the NBA, right Like. He was
Speaker 1: just a guy that could provide the specific type of
Speaker 1: support that Kobe needed, and then a bunch of really
Speaker 1: good role player talent around them. That, to me, is
Speaker 1: the construct. It's not about going after the Yannis. It's
Speaker 1: about finding the guy that can be the next Jalen
Speaker 1: Brunson slash Kyrie Irving as that supporting offensive piece and
Speaker 1: then anchoring him with rock solid two way athletes at
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Speaker 1: co slash audio. Hi Jason, A huge fan and I
Speaker 1: love the work. I have two questions, so hopefully you'll
Speaker 1: answer at least one in your time As an NBA fan,
Speaker 1: is there anyone you kind of root for or still
Speaker 1: believe in that hasn't really panned out or that you're
Speaker 1: just a fan of that's a little lesser known to
Speaker 1: the casual fan. A few of mine are Cam Reddish
Speaker 1: Collinsects and Lonzo Ball. My second question is who's your
Speaker 1: favorite what if? As far as injured players, of course,
Speaker 1: there's obvious ones like Derek Rose, John Wall, the person
Speaker 1: at the top of my wish list that they never
Speaker 1: got injured as Victor Oladipo. So I actually have the
Speaker 1: same answer for both of your questions for who is
Speaker 1: a player that I've rooted for that just hasn't panned
Speaker 1: out and is who one of my biggest like injury
Speaker 1: was wasfs. But before we get there, I did like
Speaker 1: you bringing up Victor Oladipo. Victor Oladipo is a big
Speaker 1: one for sure, and I remember that first round playoff
Speaker 1: series against the Calves in twenty eighteen was kind of
Speaker 1: the peak of Victor Oladipo in terms of like just
Speaker 1: that sheer combination of downhill force with pull up shooting
Speaker 1: and his jump shot kind of abandoned him a little
Speaker 1: bit in that series and that ended up being the
Speaker 1: biggest issue for him in terms of them being able
Speaker 1: to beat a kind of limited Calves team. But the
Speaker 1: athleticism was so crazy. Those of you guys who remember,
Speaker 1: like he dunked on Lebron in that series, but he
Speaker 1: had a missed dunk on Lebron in that series that
Speaker 1: was even crazier than the mad dunk that he had,
Speaker 1: and it was because he was just getting off the
Speaker 1: bounce and just was nuclear off the floor when he
Speaker 1: would elevate off of that left right takeoff and he
Speaker 1: just could dunk on anybody had the crazy off the
Speaker 1: dribble shooting to tie it all together. Victor O Ladipo
Speaker 1: before his knee went, was a really really exciting player.
Speaker 1: The guy that is that's my answer for the you
Speaker 1: know kind of the player has it really panned out?
Speaker 1: And my biggest injury what if is Brandon Ingram. Brandon
Speaker 1: Ingram has become a guy that has just disappeared into
Speaker 1: the morass of stars that are in that like twentieth
Speaker 1: to forty fifth best player in the league that are
Speaker 1: just kind of generally everyone just kind of is indifferent
Speaker 1: towards And to me, that mostly comes down to his injuries.
Speaker 1: Brandon has been incapable of staying on the floor, mainly
Speaker 1: because of ankle issues over the years. And when Brandon
Speaker 1: is healthy and in rhythm, like when he is playing
Speaker 1: fifty straight games and consistently like available and not dealing
Speaker 1: with nagging stuff, and he's got his athletic pop and
Speaker 1: he's got his rhythm and flow, I think he's a
Speaker 1: better passer than many of the forwards that he's played
Speaker 1: that he's that have competed with him at like star
Speaker 1: forwards around the guys like Paul George, you know, guys
Speaker 1: like guys like Kevin Durant, Jason Tatum. Like, actually think
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram is a very gifted playmaker out of high
Speaker 1: pick and roll, and I think he's got that like
Speaker 1: kind of surgical mid range scoring piece. I think Brandon Ingram,
Speaker 1: if things go right for him, can still be, you know,
Speaker 1: like a third team All NBA type of player in
Speaker 1: the NBA. He just hasn't been able to stay healthy
Speaker 1: long enough to put all of that together, and so
Speaker 1: you know, he may never and it may just be
Speaker 1: the biggest what if you know from his career is
Speaker 1: what it might have been like if he was able
Speaker 1: to stay healthy. But I'm a big believer in Brandon Ingram.
Speaker 1: When he's healthy, I think he can be a very very,
Speaker 1: very very good basketball player. Have you seen a difference
Speaker 1: in team construction inspired by Indiana and okc's final runs
Speaker 1: this offseason? Not really. I think if anything, teams are
Speaker 1: looking to go to opposite direction by getting bigger and
Speaker 1: stronger on the front line as kind of like a
Speaker 1: counter to what the thunder do or to match up
Speaker 1: better with Jokic. But part of the issue there is
Speaker 1: real useful perimeter athletes that can dribble, shoot, pass, and
Speaker 1: defend are pretty rare and they're expensive when you find them.
Speaker 1: If I had to compliment three teams over the last
Speaker 1: couple of off seasons that have indexed in the right
Speaker 1: direction in terms of that perimeter type of play, I'd
Speaker 1: say Golden State, Atlanta, and the Los Angeles Clippers. But
Speaker 1: Golden State is on the margins. They just continue to
Speaker 1: find these useful guys like Gui Santos and Pat Spencer
Speaker 1: and Brandon Pajemski even to a certain extent, as like
Speaker 1: these guys that are are just really good at a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff and athletic for their position, and it
Speaker 1: just kind of like makes them useful. And there's just
Speaker 1: a lot of utility in the modern NBA, especially with
Speaker 1: a good coach that can set guys up with advantages
Speaker 1: if you have that skill set. And I think Golden State,
Speaker 1: despite never being able to surround Steph with a legit
Speaker 1: secondary star until Jimmy Butler, I think they've done pretty
Speaker 1: well on the margins and it's kept them competitive in
Speaker 1: that regard. With Atlanta, it's their new core Jalen Johnson,
Speaker 1: Zachary Risachet, Dyson Daniels, and Nikhil Alexander Walker, all guys
Speaker 1: that they've obtained over the course of the last couple
Speaker 1: of seas. And with the Clippers, it was more last
Speaker 1: offseason with the moves for Derek Jones Junior and Chris Dunn,
Speaker 1: which I think we're really really smart, savvy moves on
Speaker 1: the margins that really like more than replaced improved on
Speaker 1: a max salary slot in Paul George because of the
Speaker 1: way that they can be useful in the modern NBA.
Speaker 1: As a Celtics fan, I'm currently working on a video
Speaker 1: video going over the most frustrating losses of the Tatum
Speaker 1: and Brown era. A few that will definitely be included
Speaker 1: will be the twenty twenty two Game five versus Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two Game four versus Golden State, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five Games one and two versus the Knicks, et cetera.
Speaker 1: From your own viewing experience, do you have any games
Speaker 1: in particular that still break your heart to think about
Speaker 1: as a Lebron fan. I'd imagine either the Jamal Murray
Speaker 1: game winners in twenty twenty four or Game one of
Speaker 1: the twenty eighteen Finals that come to mind, But I'm
Speaker 1: curious if there's anything else that resonated with you. So eighteen,
Speaker 1: the twenty eighteen NBA Finals Game one obviously is a
Speaker 1: big one. Not even you know, I didn't think the
Speaker 1: Calves would have had any chance to win that series.
Speaker 1: The talent gap was too massive, Like even if they
Speaker 1: won game won, the Warriors would have just won the
Speaker 1: next four games. But it just was I just was
Speaker 1: discouraged in the sense that I thought Lebron deserved to
Speaker 1: win that game. I thought he was the best player
Speaker 1: on the floor by a mile, and I thought he
Speaker 1: played well enough to get the job done, and just
Speaker 1: everything went wrong down the stretch. A lot of people
Speaker 1: don't remember this, but there was this bizarre overturned block
Speaker 1: charge call at the end of that game where Lebron
Speaker 1: took a charge on KD and in an era where
Speaker 1: we didn't even have video review or challenges, they just
Speaker 1: like went to the monitor and overturned the block charge
Speaker 1: call and gave KD two points, which is like bizarre,
Speaker 1: even regardless of what you think about the call, it
Speaker 1: just was a bizarre sequence that went against Lebron in
Speaker 1: that moment, the miss free throw from George Hill j R.
Speaker 1: Smith forgetting the score. There was just like so many
Speaker 1: things that went against him and that ended up sending
Speaker 1: the game to overtime, and he just played well enough
Speaker 1: to win that game, and I think he should have deserved.
Speaker 1: He deserved that moment, even if the Cavs had no
Speaker 1: chance of winning that series with the jamal game winners.
Speaker 1: It's really the first one, not the one in Game five.
Speaker 1: If you guys remember, the Nuggets scored on nine of
Speaker 1: their last ten possessions in that game, including some wild
Speaker 1: plays like that weird transition sequence where the ball almost
Speaker 1: got turned over out of bounds, but Aaron Gordon saved
Speaker 1: it to Michael Porter Junior at the right wing and
Speaker 1: he hit like a contested crazy leg kicking three on
Speaker 1: the right wing that went in. Lebron was amazing down
Speaker 1: the stretch of that game and hit all of these
Speaker 1: shots and got a big stealing dunk. That was the
Speaker 1: one stop they got in the last ten possessions was
Speaker 1: Lebron with the stealing dunk. And just in general, as
Speaker 1: I look back at that series, I thought the Lakers
Speaker 1: were much closer to winning that series than it looked
Speaker 1: at just any chance they would have had to have
Speaker 1: a big late series chance to win was taken away
Speaker 1: by Jamal Murray hitting those two shots. And so obviously
Speaker 1: those ones were tough. Game one or Game five of
Speaker 1: the twenty fifteen Finals. A couple other ones that I
Speaker 1: look at total roster mismatch, obviously with Kevin Love and
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving being down, But Lebron was just still so
Speaker 1: good in that series that he was able to keep
Speaker 1: the series super competitive, and a shot or two here
Speaker 1: or there in one of those two games could have
Speaker 1: swung it the other way and given Lebron one of
Speaker 1: the more impressive titles in NBA history. Those are a
Speaker 1: couple games that I look back on three more. The
Speaker 1: majority of former NBA players, coaches, and execs believe Kobe
Speaker 1: is the greatest player ever. What is it the Kobe
Speaker 1: What is the Kobe goat case that most of the
Speaker 1: media does not agree with. I believe it's because Kobe
Speaker 1: lost three years buried on the bench, lost three prime
Speaker 1: years with Kwame Brown in a few other years with
Speaker 1: an old washed roster. Whenever given a good roster, he
Speaker 1: went five to two in the Finals. First of all,
Speaker 1: there are obviously some fans and some coaches and some
Speaker 1: players that think that Kobe is the goat. But I
Speaker 1: pushed back on the idea that the majority do. I
Speaker 1: think the majority either thing. It's MJ or Lebron. I
Speaker 1: have Kobe at three, but I think there's a gap
Speaker 1: between the Lebron and MJ Tier one two and that
Speaker 1: next tier that Kobe leads. The problem here is that
Speaker 1: Kobe's just a lesser version of MJ. Like when we
Speaker 1: argue about Lebron versus MJ, it's about the differences in
Speaker 1: their games. It's like so much of what's in the
Speaker 1: eye of the beholder, so to speak. Right, But like
Speaker 1: Kobe was basically the same type of player that MJ was,
Speaker 1: just not as good. I also think Lebron and MJ
Speaker 1: were clearly the best players on all ten of their
Speaker 1: championship runs. Now, I think Kobe was underrated in their
Speaker 1: early two thousands. I think the idea that you could
Speaker 1: just swap Kobe out with anybody and they'd win three
Speaker 1: is misplaced. I think if you put a lesser star
Speaker 1: in that spot, they probably still get one or two,
Speaker 1: But them getting all three of those had a lot
Speaker 1: to do with Kobe, and he was still remarkably valuable,
Speaker 1: but obviously Shaquille O'Neil was the driving force behind those
Speaker 1: title teams. I just think there's a clearly discernible gap
Speaker 1: between where Kobe is in the top two guys, whereas
Speaker 1: for Lebron and MJ it's so much up for debate
Speaker 1: and there's not as much of that like discernible gap,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense. Hi Jason, I love your podcast
Speaker 1: and welcome to Denver. You've stated that Lebron James is
Speaker 1: your favorite player of all time, and he has been
Speaker 1: in the league for twenty plus years. I was wondering,
Speaker 1: since you have such high regards for Nicola Jokic, if
Speaker 1: he continues to play at the same level for the
Speaker 1: next ten years, and I think that he will, can
Speaker 1: he replace Lebron as your favorite player of all And
Speaker 1: can Jokich not only be one of the best players
Speaker 1: of all time, but in fact the best player of
Speaker 1: all time. I don't think Jokic will ever replace Lebron
Speaker 1: as like my favorite player, just simply because there's like
Speaker 1: a youthful sentimental element to it, Like I fell in
Speaker 1: love with basketball as a teenager, watching Lebron James. So
Speaker 1: there's a sentimental element there that Jokic could never achieve
Speaker 1: with a fan like me. Right, I've joked about it
Speaker 1: on the show before, but when Lebron retires, I won't
Speaker 1: have anybody really that I root for the way I've
Speaker 1: rooted for Lebron, because I don't have a favorite team
Speaker 1: in the NBA, and all these guys that I like
Speaker 1: now I've grown to like them as just an adult
Speaker 1: basketball fan, and so it's just a very different kind
Speaker 1: of like emotional, sentimental type of feeling. As far as
Speaker 1: Jokic entering into the Goat conversation, he just has so
Speaker 1: much ground to make up in terms of team accomplishment. Now,
Speaker 1: some of this is not fair because even amongst superstar
Speaker 1: talent that we evaluate an NBA history, Jokic just had
Speaker 1: it pretty rough with supporting talent. He's never played with
Speaker 1: an All Star, he's never played with an All NBA player,
Speaker 1: he's never played with an All defensive player. He's played
Speaker 1: with a very very good group of role players. And like,
Speaker 1: for instance, this team that he's going into this next
Speaker 1: season with is the most talented roster Yokic has played
Speaker 1: with and it's a very good team, but he's never
Speaker 1: you know, like played with the player the likes of
Speaker 1: Scottie Pippen or the likes of Anthony Davis or you know, uh,
Speaker 1: Dwayne Wade or Shaquille O'Neal. For Kobe, like, he hasn't
Speaker 1: had that type of top end supporting talent, and so
Speaker 1: it's complicated. You can't just weigh team success evenly between
Speaker 1: Yokic and other stars in NBA history. But even within
Speaker 1: that context, one title is not going to get it done.
Speaker 1: I think where it could get interesting for Yokich is
Speaker 1: if he got like three and the three that he
Speaker 1: got all were overcoming crazy difficulty, Like if he beat
Speaker 1: Houston and Oklahoma City this year and you know Cleveland,
Speaker 1: let's say out of the East, and it's like, holy shit,
Speaker 1: that's one of the toughest titles ever. And then he
Speaker 1: gets another one like that at some point, and like
Speaker 1: he has like three with like four MVPs, and this extended,
Speaker 1: like because he's already going into his fourth season as
Speaker 1: like the definitive best player in the league. Let's say
Speaker 1: that stretches to like seven or eight seasons. Now, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: the last time we saw the only times in NBA
Speaker 1: history we saw players be definitively the best player in
Speaker 1: the league for that long would be Lebron and MJ
Speaker 1: so like if he could, that's where it could be
Speaker 1: more of a conversation that I think in order to
Speaker 1: get into the goat conversation, at minimum he would need
Speaker 1: two additional championships. All right, last question, Hi, Jason Fann
Speaker 1: from Mongolia. Been a fan since the Lakers Tonight days,
Speaker 1: even though I am a Warriors fan. I have a
Speaker 1: mailbag for you. You often mentioned in all your all
Speaker 1: time rankings about whether or not someone has been the
Speaker 1: definitive best player in the league for a period of time,
Speaker 1: which on the surface level makes sense, but if you
Speaker 1: look a bit deeper. I don't know if you follow
Speaker 1: football soccer, but the example of Messi and Ronaldo is
Speaker 1: that neither of them were the definitive best player ever
Speaker 1: more than a season or it was always debatable. Probably
Speaker 1: only Messi in twenty twelve was definitive, and I would
Speaker 1: say that they are the two best players to ever live.
Speaker 1: How do you count for that? When you're talking about
Speaker 1: players who were in the same age of Jordan or Lebron,
Speaker 1: they would never have been the definitive best player because
Speaker 1: of how great those two are. You know, I actually
Speaker 1: look at the this is like a strength when I'm
Speaker 1: talking about players, like I've talked about this with Steph,
Speaker 1: like I talked about it earlier in the show. Like,
Speaker 1: to me, Steph playing in Lebron's era and being as
Speaker 1: close to him as he is is a big part
Speaker 1: of why I have him over guys like Larry Bird
Speaker 1: and higher up on the list, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people rank Steph. I think ultimately what you're describing is
Speaker 1: exactly why this is so subjective, you know. I one
Speaker 1: of the tough things for me with Michael Jordan is
Speaker 1: like there just wasn't that much talent in the league
Speaker 1: when Michael Jordan was playing. The league was heavily deluded
Speaker 1: by expansion over the course of the early nineties. You know,
Speaker 1: the guys that we put up against mj in that era,
Speaker 1: you know, guys like Clyde Drexler, guys like Charles Barkley,
Speaker 1: they just they just aren't the same types of players
Speaker 1: that we saw at the top of the league in
Speaker 1: other eras. And by the way, like I know, Michael
Speaker 1: was very young, but when the Bird and Magic were
Speaker 1: at their peak. MJ wasn't winning titles, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, he won titles when those dudes aged out,
Speaker 1: and there was kind of a talent void the top
Speaker 1: of the league. But that's still purely subjective, Right, how
Speaker 1: do you count for that? How do you count for
Speaker 1: the gap that existed between you know, Lebron and Steph
Speaker 1: and whether or not that that is something that should
Speaker 1: penalize Steph or that should benefit Steph or penalize Lebron?
Speaker 1: Like are we penalizing Lebron because he didn't build as
Speaker 1: much of a gap when he's playing against superior talent
Speaker 1: than MJ played against. Like, it's just it's just complicated
Speaker 1: and it's subjective, and that's why, Like I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you guys my takes and I'm gonna break down my
Speaker 1: reasoning for why I have a player here a player there.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, this stuff is all subjective and it's about
Speaker 1: what you believe. Like I have met Warriors fans who
Speaker 1: sincerely believe that Steph Curry is the greatest basketball player
Speaker 1: of all time. And I can't argue against that in
Speaker 1: any sort of definitive way. I can argue against it
Speaker 1: in a theoretical way. But I can't, Like, you can't
Speaker 1: argue against any of this in a definitive way. There
Speaker 1: are nuggets, fans you believe Nikola Jokic is the best
Speaker 1: player to ever play. This is ultimately subjective, and that's
Speaker 1: what makes it fun. My thing is like, let's just
Speaker 1: keep it fun. Let's keep it fun, let's debate. Let's
Speaker 1: prevent it from getting personal or mean, because none of
Speaker 1: us are right. All of us just have our take.
Speaker 1: You know. That's kind of the way that I look
Speaker 1: at it. All right, guys, It's all I have for
Speaker 1: today is always I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting
Speaker 1: us and supporting the show. We will be back on
Speaker 1: Monday with more player rankings. I will see you, guys,