Speaker 1: Welcome to the State of the Lakers on DASH Radio.
Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for coming to hang out
Speaker 1: on a Monday. I hope you guys have a good
Speaker 1: week ahead of you. Nothing too crazy, nothing too busy.
Speaker 1: I hope you get a time, a good amount of
Speaker 1: time to enjoy a busy week of Lakers basketball. We
Speaker 1: went from having two games last week to four games
Speaker 1: this week. Um, a much needed rest for some of
Speaker 1: the guys. But at the same time, for a guy
Speaker 1: like Lebron like getting in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 1: He almost he just needs games. He needs reps with
Speaker 1: these guys. So he's gonna get those reps this week,
Speaker 1: God willing, if you can stay healthy, and there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot of exciting Lakers basketball to talk about. However,
Speaker 1: today we're gonna go around the league. Um, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about the Dame Lillard situation and all the news
Speaker 1: that came out with him over the course the last
Speaker 1: twenty four hours. I want to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about some of the games that I watched yesterday and
Speaker 1: some of the differences that I see between the way
Speaker 1: the Lakers are approaching their season and the way some
Speaker 1: of these other teams around the league are approaching their season,
Speaker 1: playing into their strengths and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna relay that in just a little bit of
Speaker 1: Lakers having to do with their starting lineup. Then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give my current take on the m v P race.
Speaker 1: Who I have is the current m v P and why,
Speaker 1: and who I think is the best player in the
Speaker 1: league right now. So some mostly non Lakers today, but
Speaker 1: a little bit of Lakers in there as well. But
Speaker 1: we'll go ahead and get started with the Dame stuff.
Speaker 1: So obviously, we had reporting come out today that Dame
Speaker 1: is allegedly starting to get unhappy not just with the team,
Speaker 1: but with Chauncey Billups and with the whole overall vibe
Speaker 1: around the franchise. And this has been kind of like
Speaker 1: a back and forth roller coaster with Dame for a
Speaker 1: while now. It's honestly kind of frustrating because you could
Speaker 1: tell it's mostly narrative flexing, attempting to kind of tell
Speaker 1: us what's going on from his own perspective rather than
Speaker 1: the obvious reality of what's going on. I mean, the
Speaker 1: reality the situation is is Dame appears to be unhappy
Speaker 1: with his basketball circumstances. He appears to not like as
Speaker 1: a basketball player what he's dealing with on a day
Speaker 1: to day basis, and that's normal, that's human. That to
Speaker 1: me is like what happened with Kevin Durant. We can
Speaker 1: give him a hard time about, you know, going to
Speaker 1: such a time team, and we can give him a
Speaker 1: hard time about deck stacking and things along those lines,
Speaker 1: but the reality is is Kevin Durant just got sick
Speaker 1: of playing crappy basketball. He didn't like the year Turn
Speaker 1: My Turn thing with with Russ. He didn't like that
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to get much offensively from his role players.
Speaker 1: He didn't like that that they were primarily defensive focused players,
Speaker 1: and it turned it into an isolation contest. And he
Speaker 1: just saw Golden State as an opportunity to advance himself
Speaker 1: as a basketball player into the best version of himself
Speaker 1: as a basketball player. And so, regardless of what we
Speaker 1: feel about the outcome and how fair it was, quote unquote,
Speaker 1: for Kevin Durant, it was just about basketball. And I
Speaker 1: admired that part of the decision. And I wish Damon
Speaker 1: Lillard would see the same thing, because here's the reality. Man,
Speaker 1: Like what you. You have two desires here. You are
Speaker 1: fiercely loyal to the city of Portland, and you are
Speaker 1: fiercely loyal to that organization and to your teammates. I
Speaker 1: get that, But you also are clearly unhappy, unhappy with
Speaker 1: your basketball situation and you want something better. That's okay,
Speaker 1: you have to understand, Dame, that those two things can't coexist.
Speaker 1: Portland is demonstrated time and time again that they are
Speaker 1: not capable of setting you up with a really quality
Speaker 1: basketball situation. Do you gain something by sticking it out there? Sure,
Speaker 1: you gain the admiration of some of your peers and
Speaker 1: of some of the people out in the public, But
Speaker 1: is that worth more to you then you achieving your
Speaker 1: desired outcome as a basketball player, playing the level of
Speaker 1: offensive basketball that you've always dreamed of playing where you
Speaker 1: don't have to be a superhero every single night in
Speaker 1: order for your team to win. Because if you want that,
Speaker 1: you've got to stop caring about what other people. You've
Speaker 1: got to stop caring about what I think or the
Speaker 1: people on Twitter think. If what you want is a
Speaker 1: better basketball situation, basketball situation, And the reality is, man,
Speaker 1: is you've paid your dues in that city for so
Speaker 1: long you've put your heart and soul on the line
Speaker 1: for wins. They can't judge you. The people in that
Speaker 1: city who do judge you if you decide to leave.
Speaker 1: They are the kind of people you want in your
Speaker 1: corner anyway. They're just gonna get because that's what they
Speaker 1: like to do. So at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: man I I hope for Dame's sake that he comes
Speaker 1: to terms with the reality that his desire to have
Speaker 1: a better basketball situation doesn't have to be tied to Portland,
Speaker 1: and then he should stop caring so much about making
Speaker 1: other people happy and make himself happy a little bit.
Speaker 1: He's paid his dues there, and now is Dame blameless
Speaker 1: and this whole thing now, Dave Dame has failed to
Speaker 1: commit to the defensive end of the floor, and he
Speaker 1: doesn't really commit to staying involved as a basketball player
Speaker 1: off the ball, which is something that Steff has done
Speaker 1: such a good job of over the course of his career,
Speaker 1: and it's absolutely shortcoming. Dame has fixable flaws, but those
Speaker 1: two me are separate from the situation that Portland is
Speaker 1: not a good basketball situation. CJ. Mccolms a great player
Speaker 1: He's not good enough to be the number two on
Speaker 1: a team that consistently competes for a championship. When you
Speaker 1: have two guards that cannot defend, you need to have
Speaker 1: anchor defensively in the front court. You need to have
Speaker 1: players that can clean up messes consistently. That's never been
Speaker 1: the way this team is designed. Yeah, Norman Powell and
Speaker 1: Robert Covington are good defensive players, above average defensive players.
Speaker 1: Neither of them are defensive anchors, though, guys who consistently
Speaker 1: can clean up messes that you make in the backcourt.
Speaker 1: The Portland's situation is never really going to pan out
Speaker 1: to what he wants it to be. And I think
Speaker 1: it's time for him to stop beating around the bush.
Speaker 1: Stop trying to control the narrative in the press. Dude,
Speaker 1: everyone's already already has your back. Everyone understands your circumstances here.
Speaker 1: Just just make it happen. Just go to the ownership
Speaker 1: group and tell them it's time, and you know what,
Speaker 1: they owe it to you and they're gonna take care
Speaker 1: of you. Get out of Portland, go go start fresh,
Speaker 1: somewhere new and live that idealized version of you as
Speaker 1: a basketball player. That we all know that's what you
Speaker 1: want anyway. Um, all right, So I wanted to move
Speaker 1: on to this game that I watched yesterday between Utah
Speaker 1: and Cleveland, and it was super interesting because if you
Speaker 1: guys remember, after the game they lost, the Lakers lost
Speaker 1: to the Clippers the other night. I was really hard
Speaker 1: on the Lakers for not really embracing their identity, understanding
Speaker 1: what they're good at, and catering their system and their
Speaker 1: lineup decisions and and everything about what they do towards
Speaker 1: their strengths rather than towards their weaknesses. The Lakers are
Speaker 1: a team to have really really good downhill attackers in
Speaker 1: Russ and Lebron, and they've got a post player who
Speaker 1: consists only gets mismatches and has the ability to get
Speaker 1: in the paint in Anthony Davis. And then they have
Speaker 1: a bunch of shooters. They've got a lot of shooting. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they've got other archetypes of players that are more defensive oriented,
Speaker 1: like Avery Bradley. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: their best lineups all season long have been with their shooting.
Speaker 1: When they play Carmelo Anthony, when they played Milak Monk,
Speaker 1: when they play Wayne Ellington, when you put those guys
Speaker 1: next to the to the basket attackers on the Lakers,
Speaker 1: that's when they get their best stuff, and it's it's
Speaker 1: a snowball effect. When they start to score, they get
Speaker 1: more opportunity to set their defense. They just play better.
Speaker 1: But we haven't seen that enough this year because the
Speaker 1: Lakers aren't leaning into that that is more of a counter.
Speaker 1: They fall back to line ups with their shooting rather
Speaker 1: than starting with lineups with their shooting. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because I watched Utah and Cleveland, two really good basketball teams.
Speaker 1: Cleveland obviously had a stretch when they lost Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: where they took some losses, but they're a very good
Speaker 1: team when they have their guys. You obviously look at
Speaker 1: Utah and we know everything they're capable of in the
Speaker 1: regular season, but when I watched there, they have really
Speaker 1: basic rules and really basic organization that played directly into
Speaker 1: their strengths. Utah's got three really really good off the
Speaker 1: dribble attackers who can run pick and roll, and Mike
Speaker 1: Conley and Donovan Mitchell and in Jordan Clarkson, and basically
Speaker 1: they have they have really standard spacing rules that make
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. Everybody else on the floor is
Speaker 1: a shooter or Rudy Gobert. And when Rudy goes at
Speaker 1: when Rudy Goberts on the floor and he's either setting
Speaker 1: a ball screen or he sits in the dunker spot.
Speaker 1: When he's in the dunker spot, the shooters position in
Speaker 1: a certain way. When he's set in the ball screen,
Speaker 1: the shooters position in a certain way. It's all very modern.
Speaker 1: They all fill in replace when they cut, and when
Speaker 1: they screen, they all have a place they're supposed to go.
Speaker 1: Everything makes sense. But most importantly, they're playing into their
Speaker 1: strengths because they're getting an advantage through screens, not just
Speaker 1: with Rudy Gobert, but with the guards as well. To
Speaker 1: get Donovan Mitchell downhill, to get Mike Connolly downhill, to
Speaker 1: get Jordan Clarkson downhill, and from there they're able to
Speaker 1: spray out too shooters. And if you overplay their drive
Speaker 1: and you go underneath screens, all three of those guys
Speaker 1: can shoot over the top and knock down threes. So
Speaker 1: they have a very very simple offensive attack, a system
Speaker 1: that has proven to work plays into their best player's
Speaker 1: strengths in a manifests in a successful basketball system. Same
Speaker 1: thing goes with Cleveland. They have too they play two bigs,
Speaker 1: but they understand that Jared Allen is dead as an
Speaker 1: offensive rebounder and he finishes everything that he catches around
Speaker 1: the rim, So they use Evan Mobley as the screener
Speaker 1: so that Evan Mobley can pop to the short role
Speaker 1: where he can make reads either throwing it up to
Speaker 1: Jared Allen at the rim or kicking it out to
Speaker 1: shooters on the wing. And same thing. Lori marking in
Speaker 1: aggressive as a as a as a shooter, Isaac A.
Speaker 1: Coral is a little bit more hot and cold, but
Speaker 1: they use him in that same way. And most importantly,
Speaker 1: they have guys who can shoot the three off the
Speaker 1: dribble consistently. Scarland is thirty nine percent this year on
Speaker 1: dribble three's that's a great number. Ricky Rubio is eight
Speaker 1: percent this year on dribble three. That's a great number.
Speaker 1: So when they're running their pick and roll game, they're
Speaker 1: able to get downhill easy because the guards have to
Speaker 1: panic chase over the top of these screens, which is
Speaker 1: getting them into the paint, which is creating good stuff,
Speaker 1: which brings me back to the Lakers, And this is
Speaker 1: what drives me nuts with this. Lebron and a D
Speaker 1: are capable of knocking down jump shots off the dribble.
Speaker 1: That should always be part of their game, but that
Speaker 1: should never be their bread and butter. That should always
Speaker 1: be a counter. That's what they should do after they've
Speaker 1: established their strengths as a counter or as a fallback.
Speaker 1: But both Lebron and a D. And we're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about this in a minute, because it might have a
Speaker 1: good A good percentage of this has to do with spacing,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it has to do with their
Speaker 1: own individual identity as well. Lebron and a D don't
Speaker 1: realize that if they actually get into an off the
Speaker 1: dribble jump shooting contest with the other team, they're almost
Speaker 1: always gonna lose. Why because while Lebron and while Lebron
Speaker 1: and a D are both top tier rim pressuring players,
Speaker 1: top tier two way versatile forwards, there definitely not in
Speaker 1: the top tier, maybe not even the second tier, maybe
Speaker 1: not even in the third tier of dribble jump shooters.
Speaker 1: So when you actively lean into not a weakness, but
Speaker 1: certainly not your strength, you are playing down to the
Speaker 1: competition in order for the Lakers to win Night in
Speaker 1: the Night Out, they need Lebron and a D to
Speaker 1: be the two best players in the floor. They can't
Speaker 1: be the two best players on the floor if they
Speaker 1: consistently lean into their weaknesses, which is dribble shooting, at
Speaker 1: least relative to what their strengths are, which is being big, versatile,
Speaker 1: bruising forwards that protect the paint on one end and
Speaker 1: get into the pain on the other end. And it's
Speaker 1: frustrating to me to see teams like Utah and Cleveland
Speaker 1: who know exactly what they are, who know exactly know
Speaker 1: exactly what they're good at, and play into those while
Speaker 1: I watched the Lakers essentially play a caricature of something
Speaker 1: pretending to be someone else, which is not what they are.
Speaker 1: And they will never be able to establish anything consistent
Speaker 1: Night in the Night Out in this league until they
Speaker 1: actually lean into their strengths. When the Lakers lean into
Speaker 1: their strengths as a basket attacking team that sprays out
Speaker 1: the shooters, they'll suddenly look like one of the best
Speaker 1: teams in the league because nobody does that as well
Speaker 1: as them. Nobody does what Lebron and a D does
Speaker 1: when they actually decide to do that, it will turn
Speaker 1: things around, and that that's what's so frustrating about the
Speaker 1: starting lineup thing. And I I vented a lot about
Speaker 1: this the other day, having to do with the simple
Speaker 1: fact that the starting lineup was the most redundant assembly
Speaker 1: of basketball talent I've ever seen, with four rim attacking
Speaker 1: players and Dwight Howard. Where Lebron's your best shooter in
Speaker 1: the lineup, and he, like we've said, is good when
Speaker 1: he's wide open, but basically bad everywhere else in terms
Speaker 1: of as a three point shooter. This year it was
Speaker 1: bound to fail. But from Frank's perspective, the way he
Speaker 1: looks at it is if I have th h, T
Speaker 1: and Russ out there with Lebron, A D and Dwight,
Speaker 1: I should be able to get stops. But consistently this
Speaker 1: year when the Lakers have gone big, they haven't been
Speaker 1: able to get stops. And again against the Clippers, they
Speaker 1: had a defensive rating over one twenty when those guys
Speaker 1: were on the floor, And so you have to ask yourself,
Speaker 1: why why is it that that group couldn't even get stops.
Speaker 1: It is some of it Lebron being rusty and not
Speaker 1: being engaged defensively, sure, but everyone else in that lineup
Speaker 1: was engaged defensively and it still wasn't work. The reason
Speaker 1: why it has to do with the way the offense
Speaker 1: and defense are intricately related. This is what we saw
Speaker 1: with Brooklyn so many times over the course of the
Speaker 1: last season. When you score the basketball, and score often
Speaker 1: and score easily, you keep the other team out of transition.
Speaker 1: You constantly get to set your defense. By virtue of
Speaker 1: doing that, you set yourself up to succeed defensively when
Speaker 1: you're constantly missing jump shots, which is what the Lakers
Speaker 1: did non stop with their starting lineup in that In
Speaker 1: that game, you're constantly live in transition. Except for now
Speaker 1: you're a team that's living in transition with two really big,
Speaker 1: slow footed guys on the floor, and so as a result,
Speaker 1: the other team is never going against your set defense,
Speaker 1: always ahead of where your bigs are running up and
Speaker 1: down the floor, and they're able to consistently generate easy shots.
Speaker 1: So again, you could play your best defensive lineup, but
Speaker 1: because you can't score, you're setting your defense up to fail.
Speaker 1: You actually have a better chance getting stops with Carmelo,
Speaker 1: Malik Monk and Wayne Ellington all on the floor. If
Speaker 1: it's Lebron in a D and you're getting baskets and
Speaker 1: your defense is set every time, and you're keeping the
Speaker 1: other team in the half court and you always have
Speaker 1: help side defense. Not to mention just the intangible mental
Speaker 1: effects of seeing the success of your offense and that
Speaker 1: motivating you to care more about the defensive end because
Speaker 1: it manifests on the scoreboard, because you're able to generate
Speaker 1: a margin of victory and you get to go back
Speaker 1: to the locker room and see a positive verse old
Speaker 1: regardless of what you think you're getting out of that
Speaker 1: giant lineup. If I'm going back to the huddle and
Speaker 1: it's eighteen to twelve at the first TV time out
Speaker 1: every damn time, then none of the guys are going
Speaker 1: to buy in on the defensive end. None of the
Speaker 1: guys are gonna feel like sprinting back in transition consistently
Speaker 1: because they're not seeing the result, because they're not seeing
Speaker 1: the positive, and because they're not motivated in that regard.
Speaker 1: The Lakers absolutely have to start leaning into their strengths.
Speaker 1: They absolutely have to start favoring the offense, start leaning
Speaker 1: into what they're good at, which will inevitably help them
Speaker 1: in the areas that they're bad at all the time
Speaker 1: throughout NBA history. If you took random metrics that measured
Speaker 1: the average points per possession and transition and the average
Speaker 1: points per possession after made baskets, the average points per
Speaker 1: possession on made baskets is way lower because you're consistently
Speaker 1: set in your defense. So Frank is, you can't see
Speaker 1: the forest for the trees here. All he can think
Speaker 1: about is defensive rebounding and defense, and that in that physicality,
Speaker 1: containment on the perimeter, the ability to be able to
Speaker 1: to shut off the paint. And he's failing to see
Speaker 1: the fact that you're not even getting Dwight Nady set
Speaker 1: up under the basket. You're not even getting your point
Speaker 1: of attack defenders in a position where they have an advantage. Instead,
Speaker 1: everyone's on their heels instead, everyone's trailing instead to help
Speaker 1: defense isn't even set up because you're living in transition
Speaker 1: because you can't score basket. And until that little detail
Speaker 1: gets worked out, I just don't see this team hitting
Speaker 1: its ceiling. This is an offensive minded team. It's very
Speaker 1: clear in their priorities. The only way you'll ever get
Speaker 1: them to defend at a high level is if you
Speaker 1: get them scoring consistently, that's where this team needs to leave, alright.
Speaker 1: So the last thing I got for today was I
Speaker 1: wanted to give my current envy p to this point
Speaker 1: in the the season. I don't think it's super controversial, but
Speaker 1: I think at the end of the day, this is
Speaker 1: a player who's been dragged pretty relentlessly over the course
Speaker 1: of the last two years, especially by the people that
Speaker 1: I primarily have been surrounded by as a Laker fan
Speaker 1: and as as a Lebron fan, and that's Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: and I think he deserves recognition for what he's doing
Speaker 1: and what he has done, and so I wanted to
Speaker 1: take a few minutes today to get into that. You
Speaker 1: guys know him a Lebron fan, I think that when
Speaker 1: he's healthy and engaged, there's nobody who brings what he
Speaker 1: brings to the table, and guys, when he does, when
Speaker 1: he finally does this year, I'll be the first guy
Speaker 1: on that train. But that train hasn't even left the
Speaker 1: station at this point, so there's no point in talking
Speaker 1: about it when I'm evaluating players. And this is something
Speaker 1: that I've been consistent with from the very beginning. When
Speaker 1: I'm ranking players at the top of the league, I
Speaker 1: always look at three criteria offensive, I look at playmaking
Speaker 1: and score it. Can you consistently attack a matchup in
Speaker 1: isolation to generate offense. That's super valuable, especially when you
Speaker 1: get into late playoff rounds when everybody's switching everything and
Speaker 1: actions cease to work and it's all about who can
Speaker 1: win the one on one matchups. And then second, that
Speaker 1: playmaking part is incredibly valuable because when you are the
Speaker 1: kind of player who can score in isolation, inevitably the
Speaker 1: defense will start sending multiple bodies at you. Whether it's
Speaker 1: through what you're seeing it with Anthony Davis just packing
Speaker 1: the paint and sending doubles over, or if it's like
Speaker 1: Steph where guys are, you know, chasing him all over
Speaker 1: the floor even when he doesn't have the ball, Or
Speaker 1: what if it's like Lebron and Russ where you're driving
Speaker 1: to the basket and guys are caving into you so
Speaker 1: open three point shooters are there. Regardless that ability to
Speaker 1: consistently make defenses pay for sending additional defensive attention your
Speaker 1: way that's also super valuable. And then lastly, defensive versatility,
Speaker 1: and notice it's defensive versatility and not defensive ability, because
Speaker 1: while Rudy Gobert, for instance, is the best defender you
Speaker 1: could possibly have any regular season environment, he's more like
Speaker 1: the fifth or sixth best defender in the playoff environment
Speaker 1: because he's not as versatile. He's not as good when
Speaker 1: you consistently make him cover ground on the perimeter, whereas
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, for instance, appears to be a better defensive
Speaker 1: player than Gobert in the playoffs because he's more versatile
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. So I look at those three things
Speaker 1: as the primary indicators of a player's value, especially in
Speaker 1: the late rounds of the postseason. So that's what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna rank on. And for the longest time, it's been
Speaker 1: Lebron for me because I was thought he was I
Speaker 1: thought he was the only player in the league who
Speaker 1: crossed all three boxes. He was the only player in
Speaker 1: the league that if you left him on an island
Speaker 1: against just about anybody, he was going to get what
Speaker 1: he wanted. He was the only player in the league
Speaker 1: that when you send defensive attention his way, he's going
Speaker 1: to find the open man and make you pay consistently.
Speaker 1: And he was the only player in the league who also,
Speaker 1: in addition to those two things, could defend multiple positions
Speaker 1: and be an anchor to a high level playoff defense.
Speaker 1: There are lots of players who do variations of those
Speaker 1: three things. Maybe they're really good isolation scores, but they
Speaker 1: can't create for others. Maybe they can create for others,
Speaker 1: but they're not great isolation scores. Maybe they're great defensively,
Speaker 1: but they're more limited offensively. So on and so on
Speaker 1: and so on and so on. Every player in the
Speaker 1: league has weaknesses in one of those areas, except for
Speaker 1: Lebron when he's at the top of his game, and
Speaker 1: that's why I always thought he was the best player
Speaker 1: in the league. But I can't give him that nod
Speaker 1: right now because he's a blow average defensive player right now,
Speaker 1: because he's just not caring and his legs aren't really
Speaker 1: underneath him. So he hasn't looked great offensively. He hasn't
Speaker 1: made a consistent effort to try to get the ball inside,
Speaker 1: which is what the team desperately needs him to do.
Speaker 1: He's holding the vast majority of his basketball ability in
Speaker 1: reserve right now for some reason, and we'll find out
Speaker 1: what that is it's not really worth discussing. I think
Speaker 1: we're gonna see flashes out of Lebron soon, but that's
Speaker 1: not here yet. Meanwhile, I have Steph Curry who's my
Speaker 1: m v P through a fourth of the season. Offensively,
Speaker 1: he's not a great playmaker in the sense that with
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands he's going to consistently pick
Speaker 1: you apart with the pass. But as I've discussed several
Speaker 1: times on the PO on the pod before, his ability
Speaker 1: to attract defensive attention off the ball is every bit
Speaker 1: as valuable as high level playmaking, because when I look
Speaker 1: at high level playmaking, as is the ability to generate
Speaker 1: high quality shots that aren't yours. So for a guy
Speaker 1: like Lebron, or for a guy like Nicola Yokis, or
Speaker 1: for a guy like Luca don Che, it's it's about
Speaker 1: in isolation, drawing attention and making reads. But for Steph
Speaker 1: it's different. For step it's I'm running off of this
Speaker 1: double pin down and two guys come after me, and
Speaker 1: so the guy at the top of key, which is
Speaker 1: usually Draymond, is gonna hit Andre Guadalar. Whoever it is
Speaker 1: quick slipping to the basket for a duck steps not
Speaker 1: making that pass, but he is generating that look with
Speaker 1: his gravity. To me, that kind of fills that same mold.
Speaker 1: And then up until a couple days ago, I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure this is still the case. But Steph is the
Speaker 1: best isolation player in basketball right now in terms of
Speaker 1: point per possession. As of a couple of days ago,
Speaker 1: he was at one point three points per isolation possession.
Speaker 1: That is an insane number. Think of it. Most high
Speaker 1: level isolation players are close to one point per possession
Speaker 1: because it's considered a generally inefficient basketball play. And Steph
Speaker 1: is more efficient in isolation than any NBA team is
Speaker 1: for the whole season throwing out isolation. That's counting your
Speaker 1: transition possessions, that's counting your wide open dunks under the
Speaker 1: basket and everything. Step is more efficient than that when
Speaker 1: he's in isolation. So he's checking two of those boxes
Speaker 1: extremely well. And then he's also turned himself into an
Speaker 1: above average defender. It's been like a it's been like
Speaker 1: a slow ascent from him on that front. Back before,
Speaker 1: when he was on the two thousand fourteen Olympic team,
Speaker 1: everyone was critical of him for not being a good
Speaker 1: defensive player. Him and Clay in Bowl, Clay embraced that.
Speaker 1: Clay advanced obviously faster and became one of the best
Speaker 1: perimeter defenders in the league. But Steph pretty quickly became serviceable.
Speaker 1: But in two thousands sixteen, you know, teams would pick
Speaker 1: on him, namely the Caps with Kyrie Irving and Lebron.
Speaker 1: But then it turned into like, Okay, now picking on
Speaker 1: him is not a great idea because he's kind of
Speaker 1: holding his ground, and now it's flat out turned into
Speaker 1: he is a disruptive defender. He's got good size, he's
Speaker 1: got really good instincts, he's really good with his hands.
Speaker 1: He defends without fouling and isolating him as a fool's
Speaker 1: Errand yeah, it might be a better option than some
Speaker 1: of the other guys on the floor to attack, and
Speaker 1: so he still will get attacked for that reason. But
Speaker 1: Steph is not tissue paper at the point of attack.
Speaker 1: I would firmly describe him as a as an above
Speaker 1: average defender. And so he's checking two of those boxes
Speaker 1: and then on the third one, he's not checking the
Speaker 1: box in the way that this or Lebron or Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis would at the top of their game. But it's
Speaker 1: very much not a weakness for him anymore. And when
Speaker 1: you factor that in with his leadership ability and with
Speaker 1: what he brings on a night tonight break basis in
Speaker 1: the regular season, I think he has the best case
Speaker 1: right now to be considered not just the m v P,
Speaker 1: but the best player in all of basketball. You know,
Speaker 1: I I have a huge problem with the incessant need
Speaker 1: for people covering the league to vault unproven players into
Speaker 1: that conversation. Like I love Nicola Yokich. He's definitely trending
Speaker 1: in that direction. I think he could be the best
Speaker 1: player in the league someday soon. But do you know
Speaker 1: how insulting it is to look at guys like Lebron,
Speaker 1: to look at guys like Steph, to look at guys
Speaker 1: like Katie, to look like look at guys like Honest
Speaker 1: or even Kauai who have done what Yokich has done,
Speaker 1: but at the highest possible level and hold it and
Speaker 1: held up the Larry of Bryan Trophy? How can you
Speaker 1: possibly vault Yokich above those guys before he's had the
Speaker 1: opera Tuna need to do the same. I get it
Speaker 1: the night in and night out stuff in the regular season,
Speaker 1: and is definitely valuable. You can't just completely out that anymore.
Speaker 1: It's my one of my biggest pet peeves with Lebron fans.
Speaker 1: I wanna be like, oh, he's aged thirty seven, it's
Speaker 1: not fair to ask him to do this. Blah blah blah. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's fine, but then he can't be the best player
Speaker 1: in the world. And for all of you guys saying
Speaker 1: that Lebron was trying every single night last season, Lebron
Speaker 1: was single night when I thought he should have been
Speaker 1: the m v P. So you are the only one
Speaker 1: who thinks he shouldn't be trying. Lebron definitely thinks he
Speaker 1: should be. He knows he's mailing it in most of
Speaker 1: the nights this season. But Yokich, as great as it
Speaker 1: is that he's dominating night in and night out in
Speaker 1: the regular season, and I want to give him credit
Speaker 1: for that. I can't put him ahead of guys who
Speaker 1: have done that and succeeded at the highest level of basketball.
Speaker 1: Steph is that guy right now. Steph is the guy
Speaker 1: that is doing what Yoki is doing in the regular season,
Speaker 1: carrying a team to the extent that they're in contention
Speaker 1: for the number one overall seed. While at the same
Speaker 1: time he has the championship pedigree. He has been the
Speaker 1: bona fide best player on a championship team. I have
Speaker 1: seen his game translate on both ends of the floor
Speaker 1: at the highest levels of basketball. He has to get
Speaker 1: the nod over a guy like Yoki. It's disrespectful not to,
Speaker 1: and I think in general, when we are giving that
Speaker 1: title out that level of recognition, we need the error
Speaker 1: on the side of being slower to doll that out
Speaker 1: rather than quicker. We're so quick to be like a
Speaker 1: ten game stretch. Yokis was the best player on the
Speaker 1: floor in all ten games. That's awesome. I've looked He's
Speaker 1: become a flat out good defensive player. I'm loving what
Speaker 1: I'm seeing from Yoki. He can't get the nod over
Speaker 1: guys who have done it at the highest level. That
Speaker 1: just can't be the way that we make that decision.
Speaker 1: And the last thing I'll say about Steph. You know,
Speaker 1: it's hard with Lebron fans because step has always been,
Speaker 1: you know, the guy that has been the biggest antagonist
Speaker 1: to Lebron in his career. I see all the time him,
Speaker 1: particularly with people that I follow, the negativity that they
Speaker 1: send in that direction, which is all like kind of
Speaker 1: residual scar tissue from that rivalry that took place literally
Speaker 1: all the way through the play in game last year.
Speaker 1: But you have to take your hat off to what
Speaker 1: this guy is accomplishing. I think Steph. I don't think
Speaker 1: Steph is nearly as good as Lebron, at least over
Speaker 1: the course of his career. I don't think he should
Speaker 1: even be in that conversation in terms of at the
Speaker 1: same level. That said, he is clearly the number two
Speaker 1: from this era, and so denigrading him, especially for you,
Speaker 1: Lebron vance, it doesn't accomplish what you think it does.
Speaker 1: Denigrading Steph minimizes everything that that that's not the route
Speaker 1: to go, even if you are trying to control some
Speaker 1: kind of narrative. The reality is is Steph has definitively
Speaker 1: been better than Kevin Durant in this era, than Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard in this era, then really really good basketball players
Speaker 1: in this era. And then what happened was is he
Speaker 1: was in a situation where Thompson got hurt and Draymond
Speaker 1: Grahm was out to start the season, and you know,
Speaker 1: the team floundered for a couple of years and they
Speaker 1: missed the playoffs twice, and everyone uses an opportunity to
Speaker 1: kick Steff when he was down, when anybody who was
Speaker 1: paying attention was like, he's ever been as good as
Speaker 1: he's ever been there, he's just playing with gee leaguers.
Speaker 1: He's playing with ge leaders and Draymond. And then even
Speaker 1: when you dove into the numbers, when they played Stephan
Speaker 1: Draymond without James Wiseman, they were killing teams and they
Speaker 1: were way over five hundred. So even our little concocted
Speaker 1: version of his failures wasn't as bad as people thought
Speaker 1: it was. And you know what, Lebron fans, I do
Speaker 1: believe that when he's got it all together, he's that guy.
Speaker 1: When he puts it all together, I will be probably
Speaker 1: leaning that direction again. But for now, you gotta give
Speaker 1: them nod to Steph. There's nobody close. Even Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: isn't bringing night in the night out, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive end, what step is bringing. Katie's my number two
Speaker 1: right now in both the m v P race and
Speaker 1: in that ranking, but I think Steph has a clear
Speaker 1: hold on that number one spot, and I just hope
Speaker 1: people appreciate him and what he's brought over the course
Speaker 1: of the last few years, even though it hasn't materialized
Speaker 1: and team success up to this point, because Steph is,
Speaker 1: without a shadow of a doubt, a top ten player
Speaker 1: of all time in my opinion, and easily a top
Speaker 1: two player of this era, and undercutting him just doesn't
Speaker 1: resonate with me. It seems like crappy narrative construction and
Speaker 1: lame behavior from disgruntled you know, sore losory Lebron fans.
Speaker 1: That's just like, that's just lame to me. I can't
Speaker 1: get behind that. I'm not rooting for stef obviously, I'm
Speaker 1: rooting for the Lakers. I hope they get it together.
Speaker 1: I hope Lebron gets championship number five. That's what I'm
Speaker 1: rooting for. But I also got to call it like
Speaker 1: I see it, and right now steps that guy. He's
Speaker 1: the one that deserves the recognition, He's the one that
Speaker 1: has the playoff pre pedigree. He's also giving it to
Speaker 1: you every night in the regular season. He has to
Speaker 1: get that title. And interestingly enough, I think this is
Speaker 1: the first time in his career that he's had that title.
Speaker 1: I think in two thousand nineteen, you had to give
Speaker 1: it to Kauai. I know a lot of Warriors fans
Speaker 1: think that. In two thousand fifteen and two thousand Lebron,
Speaker 1: I don't think it was particularly close. But here we
Speaker 1: are steps I think thirty three, he's the best player
Speaker 1: in the world and I and I think he's got
Speaker 1: a firm grasp on that, a discernible grasp on that,
Speaker 1: and and I'm happy for him, and I think he
Speaker 1: deserves the recognition, and I hope more people get on
Speaker 1: that train. All right, guys, that's all I have for today.
Speaker 1: This is going to air on DASH Radio tomorrow morning
Speaker 1: at seven am Pacific Standard time. Tomorrow night after Lakers Celtics,
Speaker 1: Raj and I will be back for our normal postgame show.
Speaker 1: As always, we appreciate your support. This will be on
Speaker 1: our podcast feed shortly and we will see you guys
Speaker 1: tomorrow night.