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Speaker 2: Slash baseball. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at
Speaker 2: the Volume Heavy Wednesday. Everybody, Oh love you guys, are
Speaker 2: having a great week. Got a jam pack show for you.
Speaker 2: Today we saw the best basketball player in the world
Speaker 2: play against the best basketball team in the world as
Speaker 2: Nicola Jokic and Serbia faced off with Team USA. We're
Speaker 2: gonna break that game down from a bunch of different angles.
Speaker 2: After that In the last couple of days, the Milwaukee
Speaker 2: Bucks rounded out an impressive offseason by signing Gary Trent
Speaker 2: Junior for the veteran minimum deal, which brings them to
Speaker 2: three really interesting free agent signings between Gary Trent, Torrian Prince,
Speaker 2: and Delon Wright. So I want to kind of talk
Speaker 2: about each of those three guys within the context of
Speaker 2: how they fit with what Milwaukee does, and just talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about the Bucks offseason from thirty thousand
Speaker 2: feet just kind of look at it as we head
Speaker 2: into next season and after that, I'm gonna hit a
Speaker 2: bunch of mail bag questions that we didn't hit in
Speaker 2: the mail bag on Monday, gonna bounce around into a
Speaker 2: bunch of different topics around the league. You guys know
Speaker 2: the joke. Before we get started. Scribe to the Hoops
Speaker 2: Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
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Speaker 2: If you get your podcast on our Hoops Tonight and
Speaker 2: then keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments, we
Speaker 2: can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer,
Speaker 2: all right, let's talk some basketball. So the showdown between
Speaker 2: Jokic and Serbia and Team USA kind of went. You
Speaker 2: saw the best of both worlds, right. It was tied
Speaker 2: at forty at one point in the late second quarter,
Speaker 2: because guess what, Nicole Jokicic still most likely the best
Speaker 2: basketball player in the world, and when you surround him
Speaker 2: with good ball movement and shooting, that just works. It
Speaker 2: works because Jokic always keeps the ball moving from side
Speaker 2: to side. He's that's really good screens. If you bring
Speaker 2: double teams, he's always going to find a way to
Speaker 2: make the right decision to beat you for that. There
Speaker 2: was a specific play in this game where Yokic was
Speaker 2: posting up ad along the left block and he kind
Speaker 2: of worked along towards the middle and bam Adebio came
Speaker 2: with like a late double team along the baseline side,
Speaker 2: and right as he came with that double team along
Speaker 2: the baseline side, the guy Bam was guarding relocated to
Speaker 2: the right wing for a three point shot, and Yokic
Speaker 2: like went and spun saw Bam immediately identified it, rifled
Speaker 2: across the court pass that hit the shooter right in
Speaker 2: the shooting pocket on the right wing. He shot it
Speaker 2: and missed it, and then somehow in that thick of
Speaker 2: bodies including Bam and ad Jokic just rose up over
Speaker 2: everybody and got the offensive rebound and flipped in a
Speaker 2: little hook shot that just swished through the net. You're like,
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, this dude is just a complete force
Speaker 2: of nature. It was obviously a lot of fun to
Speaker 2: watch him, but Serbia eventually ran out of gas and
Speaker 2: started missing shots. A big part of that, I thought,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, had to do with the defensive strategy
Speaker 2: that Serbia went with from the opening tip. They were
Speaker 2: putting a ton of ball pressure, especially in the backcourt.
Speaker 2: They got an early steal on Steph for a runout dunk.
Speaker 3: They were just.
Speaker 2: Picking up guy's full court, even in the half court,
Speaker 2: just really pressuring the ball, trying to deny catches like
Speaker 2: little things like one of the first USA possessions. They're
Speaker 2: trying to get the ball to Drew Holiday at the
Speaker 2: top of the key to run his screening action for Steph,
Speaker 2: and like Drew has to catch all the way out
Speaker 2: at half court just because his man is just hounding
Speaker 2: him all the way up there. They're top blocking Steph.
Speaker 2: It was just a super super aggressive defense, and I
Speaker 2: thought they ran out of gas, Like it's just really
Speaker 2: hard to do that, and then to make shots on
Speaker 2: the other end of the floor, and Team USA was
Speaker 2: throwing those extra defenders at Anthony or at Jokic that
Speaker 2: constantly had either Bam or Ad kind of along that
Speaker 2: back line getting ready to send that late help. And
Speaker 2: so it was important for those guys to knock down shots,
Speaker 2: and they just went cold. And then one of the
Speaker 2: things too and pick and roll. They were ducking underneath
Speaker 2: ball screens on vasil jamchich and again, like you got
Speaker 2: to think of it this way as a coverage. When
Speaker 2: the guy's chasing over the top, he's funneling him into
Speaker 2: the lane. The dribble penetration is kind of baked in,
Speaker 2: and then it becomes more on the bit to like
Speaker 2: corral the role man and the ball handlers he comes downhill.
Speaker 2: Once you start ducking underpicks, it completely changes the dynamic
Speaker 2: of the possession. Now the on ball defender is just
Speaker 2: kind of gonna meet you on either side as you
Speaker 2: come off, and so you have to beat that as
Speaker 2: the offensive player by stepping behind that pick and knocking
Speaker 2: down that pull up three, and I think he was
Speaker 2: like one for six.
Speaker 3: He just couldn't get it going. And so as.
Speaker 2: Serbia went Coldosa started getting out in transition and they.
Speaker 3: Just blew the game open.
Speaker 2: They went on a forty to eleven run after after
Speaker 2: Serbia went up thirty four to twenty eight, and it
Speaker 2: was over from their super, super impressive stretch from TSA.
Speaker 2: That was probably the best they've looked in these what
Speaker 2: they have they played three games now, Yeah, so like
Speaker 2: through three games, this is the best they've looked in
Speaker 2: that forty two eleven run. Both units, again Kurr has
Speaker 2: been doing a lot of line changes, although we mixed
Speaker 2: it up a little bit in the later portion of
Speaker 2: the game, but both of those units had extended dominant runs.
Speaker 2: Really impressive stretch for Team USA. I have five notes
Speaker 2: that I want to hit from TMUSA.
Speaker 3: One.
Speaker 2: They went back to Anthony Edwards off the bench, and
Speaker 2: again I talked about this after last game, Like Ant
Speaker 2: played really well with the starters, hit four shots in
Speaker 2: his first shift at eleven points, but like that unit
Speaker 2: still wasn't moving really well side to side, and I
Speaker 2: thought Kerr identified that and said, look, if Ant's going
Speaker 2: to be super aggressive with the ball in his hands.
Speaker 2: Let's put him with the bench group and tell him
Speaker 2: to just go nuts, and let's bring in a ball
Speaker 2: mover into that starting lineup, a guy like Drew Holliday.
Speaker 2: And another thing that Drew Holiday does really well that
Speaker 2: fits well with that starting group is he's really good
Speaker 2: at cutting along the baseline. Again, when you think of
Speaker 2: like five out spacing, if everyone actually stood in five
Speaker 2: spots around the three point line, you're not very far
Speaker 2: apart from each other. And so a lot of times
Speaker 2: like it can be easier to guard two guys with
Speaker 2: one on the weak side because those guys just aren't
Speaker 2: very far apart. And so one of the ways you
Speaker 2: can manufacture spacing. Again, we talked about this all time.
Speaker 2: Five out spacing does not necessarily mean you're always on
Speaker 2: the perimeter. It just means you're not permanently occupying the
Speaker 2: dunker spot in any capacity that area around the paint.
Speaker 2: You're rolling into the paint, you're cutting into the paint,
Speaker 2: you're driving into the paint, but you're not standing in
Speaker 2: the paint. What that means, though, is like there are
Speaker 2: opportunities when you drive and kick and the ball's kind
Speaker 2: of moving around and everything's in the blender for you
Speaker 2: to kind of pause on a cut right around that
Speaker 2: area underneath the basket. And the Celtics did a ton
Speaker 2: of this with both Derek White Andrew Holliday, but especially
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday, but having their guards as they're cutting through
Speaker 2: kind of linger around the basket. And so like Drew
Speaker 2: Holliday is just kind of a better cog within a
Speaker 2: five out system. That makes him a better fit with
Speaker 2: that starting group. And so again you put An on
Speaker 2: the bench, he comes right in immediately starts hitting pull
Speaker 2: up threes against Serbia's drop coverage. Like that's what you want.
Speaker 2: You want it to come in and look to be aggressive.
Speaker 2: He was playing passing lanes, he's getting steals, he's getting
Speaker 2: out in transition. It was awesome, and you could argue
Speaker 2: Ant's one of the top five players on the team,
Speaker 2: but it's not about that within the context of trying
Speaker 2: to make a basketball lineup work. And so I agreed
Speaker 2: with that move from Steve Kerr. We saw another steph heater,
Speaker 2: especially in that first half. He had eighteen points. A
Speaker 2: lot off ball screening stuff like screen the screen or
Speaker 2: stuff to try to take advantage of the fact that
Speaker 2: they were top locking him and understanding youk just run
Speaker 2: him off a screen, It's got to be a little
Speaker 2: bit more complicated than that. They're running some flex cuts.
Speaker 2: That's where you have Steph set a cross screen for
Speaker 2: Tatum as he comes off, and then after that Steph
Speaker 2: will come off of a pin down as he comes
Speaker 2: up to the top of the around that right wing area.
Speaker 2: Hit a three out of that flex set. It was
Speaker 2: just kind of a classic Steph heater there in that
Speaker 2: first half. It was really fun to watch it. Capted
Speaker 2: it off with a step back three on the left
Speaker 2: wing for an and one eighty and bam. Once again
Speaker 2: the two most impressive bigs. I'm just gip ahead to
Speaker 2: Embid for a second because I did think Embiid was
Speaker 2: better in this game. Rough first shift again, you know,
Speaker 2: still had some sloppy turnovers, but he did start to
Speaker 2: see some of these reads. He had a little bit
Speaker 2: of a giving with Drew Holliday where Drew Holliday cut
Speaker 2: back door.
Speaker 3: He had a nice play on a on a split cut.
Speaker 2: Out of a post up on the left side of
Speaker 2: the floor where he was able to identify I think
Speaker 2: it was Steph Curry breaking open along the left wing.
Speaker 3: In that action, he had a.
Speaker 2: Play on the short role where when he caught on
Speaker 2: the role, instead of catching and looking to score, he
Speaker 2: caught and looked on the weak side and identified the
Speaker 2: open shooter on the weak side. Like you can see,
Speaker 2: Embid is starting to get a little better in these
Speaker 2: reps that he's getting at keeping the ball moving.
Speaker 3: From side to side.
Speaker 2: And you know, Steve cur said after the game that
Speaker 2: he's pretty married to the idea of EMBD there being
Speaker 2: with the starters, and so if that's the case, these
Speaker 2: little bit of these little improvements from game to game
Speaker 2: are gonna be really important before they get to the
Speaker 2: actual Olympics. And I would imagine that Steve Kerr is
Speaker 2: preaching to him off the floor, like keep the ball
Speaker 2: moving in that group, everyone's got to everyone's got to sacrifice,
Speaker 2: everyone's got to play for each other in order for
Speaker 2: this unit to reach its ultimate potential. And Embid did
Speaker 2: a better job of that. I thought today. I thought
Speaker 2: Embiid's best game with Team USA so far was today,
Speaker 2: even though he still had a lot of turnovers, a
Speaker 2: lot of sloppiness. There was that play where Lebron hits
Speaker 2: him with the perfect back door cut pass and he's
Speaker 2: like wide open underneath the basket, and instead of just
Speaker 2: shooting a layup, he like just jumped back into Jokics
Speaker 2: to try to draw foul. It was completely absurd, and honestly,
Speaker 2: like be.
Speaker 3: Just gotta it. Has to cut that shit out.
Speaker 2: Like he still had his moments, But I thought it
Speaker 2: was a really good game from Embiid relative to the pass,
Speaker 2: just by virtue of the decisions he was making in
Speaker 2: the five out. But Ady and Vam again, we're just amazing.
Speaker 2: Ad was everywhere defensively and on the glass. You can
Speaker 2: make the case Anthony Davis has been the best player
Speaker 2: for Team USA so far through three games, which coming
Speaker 2: off of that playoff run where he basically went toe
Speaker 2: to toe with Jokic and like straight up barbecued him
Speaker 2: in the post one on one.
Speaker 3: Like eighty is playing at some.
Speaker 2: Insanely high level right now, and I really hope the
Speaker 2: Lakers invest in that before it's too late, because you've
Speaker 2: got yourself a guy there that's playing at a top
Speaker 2: five level and has been playing at a top five
Speaker 2: level in multiple settings over the course the last few months.
Speaker 2: Like you have a chance with him to put those
Speaker 2: draft picks to use and to try to bring a
Speaker 2: high level player in here and try to make something
Speaker 2: out of this final run for Lebron and Ad, and
Speaker 2: I hope the Lakers do so. BAM's jump shot once again,
Speaker 2: that was a big thing in the second game. If
Speaker 2: you guys remember against Australia, just the little soft spot
Speaker 2: in Australia's coverage was that area around the elbow where
Speaker 2: Bam was kind of short rolling into maybe hitting jumpers.
Speaker 2: Once again today, just knocking down that three point shot,
Speaker 2: and that's something that could be really exciting in the
Speaker 2: long run for Miami because that unlocks all sorts of possibilities.
Speaker 2: It unlocks what if we put Bam at the four
Speaker 2: and we put another big center next to him, which
Speaker 2: is literally what he's doing with Ad right now. You're
Speaker 2: watching Ad and Bam demonstrate for you what a two
Speaker 2: big lineup can look like when you have the flexibility
Speaker 2: to have a guy who can guard the best post
Speaker 2: player and guard all pick and roll actions while also
Speaker 2: keeping a freaky defensive talent on that back line to
Speaker 2: either backside help rotate to the weak side shooter, or
Speaker 2: clean up the defensive glass. And that duo is is
Speaker 2: just demonstrating for you what that effect is. But it
Speaker 2: depends on the fact that there's a certain level of
Speaker 2: offensive skill in spacing and like if BAM's gonna be
Speaker 2: able to shoot like that in the long run. We
Speaker 2: saw just a little hint of it last year with Miami,
Speaker 2: seeing a bigger hint of it now with Team USA.
Speaker 2: If that's something that develops for him, that could be huge,
Speaker 2: especially since like finishing around the rim is actually a
Speaker 2: little bit of a weakness for Bam in terms of
Speaker 2: his touch shots within like five feet of the rim,
Speaker 2: and so if you kind of move him into more
Speaker 2: of a four that could be something that's really exciting.
Speaker 2: But it depends on that three point shot staying staying effective.
Speaker 2: But shout out to Ady and Bam, And then the
Speaker 2: last guy I wanted to shout out was Lebron. Lebron
Speaker 2: did a lot of work in this particular game, operating
Speaker 2: from the top of the key, either with a triple
Speaker 2: threat or a live dribble as off ball action was
Speaker 2: taking place behind him along the baseline. I thought, there's
Speaker 2: this fascinating because I was listening to a friend of mine,
Speaker 2: Pete's as you guys know him. You Laker fans will
Speaker 2: know him as Laker Film Room. And I was listening
Speaker 2: to his pod that he did yesterday, and he was
Speaker 2: talking about how the Lakers ran a lot of pick
Speaker 2: and roll in their five out last year, but that
Speaker 2: he wants to see the Lakers put Lebron in ad
Speaker 2: more at the middle of the floor, not operating with
Speaker 2: ball screens, but rather just operating with a triple threat
Speaker 2: while off ball action is taking place, because multiple things
Speaker 2: can happen there. Lebron as a fulcrum, is such a
Speaker 2: good passer that if guys make mistakes in that off
Speaker 2: ball action and they break free underneath the basket or
Speaker 2: break free excuse me, along the three point line, He's
Speaker 2: gonna hit those reads on time and on target. But
Speaker 2: the second piece of it is if off all defenders
Speaker 2: get dragged into it, then he can look to be aggressive.
Speaker 2: And there was a lot of that in this particular game.
Speaker 2: But like you saw that specific dynamic take place where
Speaker 2: Lebron probably hit a half dozen different guys cutting along
Speaker 2: the baseline, some of them got botched too, like mb
Speaker 2: tried to grift his way on that one. There was
Speaker 2: the one where he hit Drew Holliday right under the
Speaker 2: basket for a layup, and then Drew just forced an
Speaker 2: extra pass that was unnecessary to embid cutting to the basket,
Speaker 2: but a bunch of guys got layups and dunks out
Speaker 2: of that. He was hitting three point shooters coming off
Speaker 2: of those actions. And then late in the game there
Speaker 2: was a sequence where a lot of off ball action
Speaker 2: was taking place, and then Lebron ended up getting a
Speaker 2: quick ball screen and got all the way to the
Speaker 2: rim and laid it up. Because none of the off
Speaker 2: ball defenders are keyed in on Lebron as a scorer
Speaker 2: because he's been doing so much playmaking from the top
Speaker 2: of the key. I actually thought that that game against
Speaker 2: Serbia was a really First of all, it's a really
Speaker 2: smart way to use Lebron with this group. Lebron is
Speaker 2: very very comfortable taking away the offensive aggression elements of
Speaker 2: his game and just functioning as like a passing folk crum.
Speaker 2: That's a role that he's willing to do. And on
Speaker 2: a team where there are some guys that are kind
Speaker 2: of yanking at the rain, so to speak, Guys like
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid, guys like Anthony Edwards, like on a team
Speaker 2: like that where guys are being aggressive, having a guy
Speaker 2: who's willing to kind of function as a folkrum is
Speaker 2: super important. It puts Steph into all those off ball
Speaker 2: actions that he's accustomed to running with Golden State, all
Speaker 2: those stuff did some on ball work as well, but
Speaker 2: like that is just a really smart way to use him.
Speaker 2: And then the second piece of it is it's like
Speaker 2: a sneak peek of what I expect JJ Reddick to
Speaker 2: do a lot more with the Lakers this upcoming season,
Speaker 2: which is a little bit less pick and roll, a
Speaker 2: little bit more Lebron catching with the triple threat or
Speaker 2: Anthony Davis catching with the triple threat in the middle
Speaker 2: of the floor, as you have guys like Austin Reeves,
Speaker 2: Daldon connect, D'Angelo Russell, those dudes working as a working
Speaker 2: in off ball action and it could be a Ruby
Speaker 2: Hotcha Mura slipping to the rim on a screen or
Speaker 2: Jared Vanderbilt slipping to the rim on a screen. That's
Speaker 2: a again, five out is all about variety, and if
Speaker 2: you just lean into ball screens, you're limiting the different
Speaker 2: types of opportunities that you can generate with that kind
Speaker 2: of spacing and Again, the idea is, if ever nobody's
Speaker 2: running the softball action and your folkroom is at the
Speaker 2: top of the key, there's nobody under the basket, and
Speaker 2: so when those opportunities to slip into that space are available,
Speaker 2: you need someone who can make those reads and a
Speaker 2: thought Lebron did a really nice job of that. Again,
Speaker 2: best they've looked so far through three games was during
Speaker 2: that forty to eleven run.
Speaker 3: Really nice progress for Team USA so far.
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Speaker 2: All right, let's move on to Milwakeebucks. So let's start
Speaker 2: with Gary Trent Junior. And again, all I'm gonna do
Speaker 2: here is I just want to hit these three free
Speaker 2: agent signings again. Like I'm not as keyed in on
Speaker 2: the draft as other NBA analysts. I'm aware of that.
Speaker 2: I don't try to pretend to be. We'll talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about it. Generally speaking, I don't think young
Speaker 2: players make much immediate impact in the NBA. It's rare
Speaker 2: to see a guy like Jaime Howkz Junior like steps
Speaker 2: in and is just a good rotation player right away
Speaker 2: for a good NBA team. And like, we will cover
Speaker 2: draft picks if they become that sort of thing. But
Speaker 2: if I look at this Bucks rotation, and I look
Speaker 2: at Damian Lillard, and I look at you know, uh uh,
Speaker 2: Delawn Right and Gary Trent Junior, and I look at
Speaker 2: Torrian Prince and Chris Middleton and Jannison Tana Koopo and
Speaker 2: Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez and I look at that group, like,
Speaker 2: I just don't really think we're gonna see a lot
Speaker 2: of the younger guys play that much. They'll play in
Speaker 2: the regular season, but this the veteran group, is gonna
Speaker 2: be the group that ends determining their outcome over the
Speaker 2: course of this season. And so I really want to
Speaker 2: zero in on these three guys. I personally covered Tori
Speaker 2: Imprints very closely with the Lakers last year, So I'll
Speaker 2: give you guys some insight on that, and then we'll
Speaker 2: talk about Gary Trent, what he accomplish last year, what
Speaker 2: his strengths and weaknesses are, and then we'll talk about
Speaker 2: Delawon Wright, and then we'll move on to our mailbag.
Speaker 2: So I had been talking about Gary Trent Junior trying
Speaker 2: to rehab his value by taking a veteran minimum deal
Speaker 2: on a contender, right, And the team that I had
Speaker 2: been primarily talking about was Denver, although I also wanted
Speaker 2: him for the Lakers potentially as well if they could
Speaker 2: have freed up a roster spot for him. But like
Speaker 2: the Bucks are another really nice example of that. They're
Speaker 2: similar to Denver. They're a team that has a clear
Speaker 2: need at the two, like specifically at his position.
Speaker 3: They have a need there.
Speaker 2: They are a team that's gonna at least be a
Speaker 2: top four seed and is gonna probably at least play
Speaker 2: two playoff rounds as long as Giannis is healthy. Right,
Speaker 2: And so like, this is an opportunity for Gary Trent
Speaker 2: to slot into a tailor made role for him and
Speaker 2: to demonstrate that he could play winning basketball alongside really good,
Speaker 2: superstar level players, so that he can maybe parlay that
Speaker 2: into a bigger deal as he goes into next offseason,
Speaker 2: try to get out of that veteran minimum tier. Right,
Speaker 2: So this makes a lot of sense, and that's in
Speaker 2: that regard. I think he's a substantial upgrade over Malik Beasley.
Speaker 2: For as good as Malik Beasley was as a catch
Speaker 2: and shoot guy last year, and he was amazing. He
Speaker 2: was one point twenty nine points per catch and shoe jumper,
Speaker 2: Gary Trent was right there. He's at one point twenty seven.
Speaker 2: So he's as good a catch and shoot guy as
Speaker 2: Malik was, at least within the context of last year
Speaker 2: last year. But Gary Trent is about an inch taller
Speaker 2: with shoes on, He's a much better ball handler, can
Speaker 2: actually run some action in a way that Malik can
Speaker 2: struggle with, and he's a better point of attack defender,
Speaker 2: still leaves a lot to be desired. He was not
Speaker 2: a good point of attack defender last year, but he
Speaker 2: has Malik Beasley's bad at it too, And Malik Beasley
Speaker 2: over the course of the year put in the work,
Speaker 2: tried to get better at least became like respectable in
Speaker 2: some sense towards the tail end of the year, but
Speaker 2: he still really struggled Garry Trent a little bit.
Speaker 3: Specifically.
Speaker 2: One of the things that Gary Trent's better with is
Speaker 2: he's just more active with his hands. To give you
Speaker 2: an idea, Malik Beasley has never had a single season
Speaker 2: where he averaged over a steal per game. Gary Trent
Speaker 2: Junior has done it five times, and I want to
Speaker 2: say he's done it like four times in a row.
Speaker 2: So like Gary Trent, it's been always been one of
Speaker 2: the guys that's like getting those steals at the point
Speaker 2: of attack, just attacking the basketball, applying that back pressure
Speaker 2: and reaching in from behind to try to disrupt that basketball.
Speaker 2: He's really good at attacking the pocket and that's a
Speaker 2: valuable skill at the point of attack. Now again, he's
Speaker 2: going to have to be better than he was in Toronto.
Speaker 2: But this is the important theme that we're talking about here.
Speaker 2: All three of these guys are veteran minimum contracts. What
Speaker 2: that means is, I haven't actually seen the report on
Speaker 2: Gary Tren. He might have ended up taking the taxpayer,
Speaker 2: but I think he was on a vet minimum. But
Speaker 2: the point is is, like, if you are going to
Speaker 2: take a like, if you're going to be like in
Speaker 2: the payroll predicament that the bucks are in, you don't
Speaker 2: get to go sign fifteen million dollar guy. And if
Speaker 2: you don't get to go sign the fifteen million dollar guy,
Speaker 2: then you can't think about it within the context of
Speaker 2: a fifteen million dollar player. If Gary Trent Junior was
Speaker 2: an elite point of attack defender, he would have signed
Speaker 2: a far more lucrative deal this summer. So you have
Speaker 2: to embrace the fact that when you're shopping in this
Speaker 2: particular price range, you're gonna get flawed.
Speaker 3: Players.
Speaker 2: Think Gary Trent's flaw at this point in time is
Speaker 2: he's a decent on the ball guy, but he's not
Speaker 2: a good on the ball guy. He's still primarily a
Speaker 2: spot up guy. And then on the defensive end, while
Speaker 2: he's active with his hands. He's not an elite athlete,
Speaker 2: and he's not an elite chase guys over the top
Speaker 2: of screens and disrupt the point of attack guy. That's
Speaker 2: the kind of concession that you're making getting him at
Speaker 2: that type of discount. That said, I do think he's
Speaker 2: a much better player than Elie Beasley, and when you
Speaker 2: strictly look at the deal through that context, you upgraded
Speaker 2: a starting spot with a vet minimum contract or something.
Speaker 2: I haven't again we talked about earlier. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: exactly what it was, but that's a massive win for
Speaker 2: the Bucks under any circumstances.
Speaker 3: Torrian Prince Tory Prince.
Speaker 2: Was a guy that I was very critical of last year,
Speaker 2: but it had nothing to do with Torrian Prince had
Speaker 2: everything to do with Darvin Ham. Darvin Ham, despite having
Speaker 2: better forwards on the roster, was utilizing Torrian Prince as
Speaker 2: the starting three, which ended up being a huge issue.
Speaker 2: Whenever he ran with the bench groups, he did really,
Speaker 2: really well. I like Torrian Prince as a bench wing,
Speaker 2: which as long as Milwaukee uses him that way, it
Speaker 2: will be fine. Now I anticipate over the course of
Speaker 2: next season that he will start some games at the
Speaker 2: three because of Chris Middleton's health. Right as we saw,
Speaker 2: Chris Middleton ended up having double ankle surgery today or recently,
Speaker 2: so like he could end up missing some time, although
Speaker 2: at this point he's expected to be ready for the
Speaker 2: start of the season. But like, if Chris Middleton misses time,
Speaker 2: you're just slotting Torrian Prince into that spot. But as
Speaker 2: we know, the idealized version of the Bucks next season
Speaker 2: involves Chris Middleton at the three concerns you have with
Speaker 2: Torrian Prince as a starting caliber forward don't really matter
Speaker 2: because if he's starting for you in the playoffs, that
Speaker 2: means Chris Middleton's hurt. And if Chris Middleton's hurt, you
Speaker 2: probably don't have a championship ceiling anyway. And so within
Speaker 2: the context of what you're hoping for this year, which
Speaker 2: is a healthy season for your stars, I like him
Speaker 2: as a backup forward, really good catch and shoot guy.
Speaker 2: Last year he is at one point two points per
Speaker 2: catch and shoot jumper. He lee like he's one of
Speaker 2: those guys that will always follow the game plan on defense,
Speaker 2: but just doesn't have quite the physical tools to be
Speaker 2: like profoundly impactful. So if his job is to chase
Speaker 2: over the top of screens or ice side balls screens,
Speaker 2: meaning like don't let him use the screen and final
Speaker 2: one back towards the baseline if he has specific responsibilities
Speaker 2: off the ball, where it's like he's not supposed to
Speaker 2: dig down off this guy, or he's supposed to dig
Speaker 2: down off that guy, Like you can count on Torreon
Speaker 2: to do his job, but like, if you watch him
Speaker 2: chase Jamal Murray around screens.
Speaker 3: He looks hopeless.
Speaker 2: And there were regular season games that the Lakers loss
Speaker 2: last year because Torrian Prince was on Jamal Murray and
Speaker 2: he's just not capable of making him even feel remotely uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: And so like preferably he's a bench guy who's taking
Speaker 2: a bench point of attack role guarding one of the
Speaker 2: lesser ball handlers for the other team and primarily operating
Speaker 2: and catch and shoot situations. Has some five out chops,
Speaker 2: like he can drive closeouts pretty well, he can run
Speaker 2: dribble handoffs pretty well. Torrian Prince is a good basketball player.
Speaker 2: He just needs to be like your seventh or eighth
Speaker 2: best player, which is what he's gonna be with Milwaukee.
Speaker 2: So I really like the fit, especially at that price point.
Speaker 2: Really really nice move for Milwaukee. His weaknesses he's not
Speaker 2: a good rebounder, and then as a three, he's thin,
Speaker 2: he's over, he's not a great athlete, and he's not
Speaker 2: particularly big or strong, and so like that physical area
Speaker 2: of the game is where he can be a problem.
Speaker 2: One thing I'll say about Torrian Prince though, as bad
Speaker 2: as he was rebounding during the regular season, as inconsistent
Speaker 2: as he could be at times, he ironically after all
Speaker 2: of that drama, Lash ended up being the lakers most
Speaker 2: dependable forward in that Nuggets series.
Speaker 3: Is that Now?
Speaker 2: That ended up being more depressing because it had most
Speaker 2: mostly had to do with the fact that Ruyhatchamura just
Speaker 2: had a completely nightmare series. But Toutorian Prince's credit, he
Speaker 2: elevated his game in that series, and I thought that
Speaker 2: was a good indicator of his confidence and his ability
Speaker 2: to play a bench role in a playoff rotation. Delon
Speaker 2: Wright basically a professional point of attack defender. He's got
Speaker 2: good length. Actually ran into him in Vegas and we
Speaker 2: stood right next to each other, and he's taller than
Speaker 2: you would think, pretty thin, but he's got good length
Speaker 2: at that guard at that guard position, shot the ball.
Speaker 3: Really well last year.
Speaker 2: The whole question with Delon Wright is can he still
Speaker 2: move the way he used to. He's thirty two years
Speaker 2: old now, But once again, this is the reality of
Speaker 2: Milwaukee's predicament. You're gonna have to shop and guys that
Speaker 2: have big question marks by virtue of where you're at
Speaker 2: with your payroll. I thought Delon Wright was a smart
Speaker 2: move in that direction to try to bring in base
Speaker 2: a more of a point of attack, defense focused two
Speaker 2: guard option to have next to Damian Lillard. And just
Speaker 2: like last year when you had Patrick Beverley and Malik
Speaker 2: Beasley as your two options, now you have Delon Right
Speaker 2: and Gary Trent Junior, two kind of similar archetypes, but
Speaker 2: two much better players. In my opinion, I just think
Speaker 2: those are better basketball players. Like Patrick Beverley's not even
Speaker 2: NBA player anymore. And Malik Beasley, again, as we talked
Speaker 2: about earlier, is a very very streaky jump shooter, can
Speaker 2: go very cold, as some of you Bucks fans saw
Speaker 2: for stretches, and he shot really well last year, but
Speaker 2: that's not how he shot every other year of his career.
Speaker 2: So like to me, I just think Gary Trents are
Speaker 2: more dependable and a better basketball player overall. So, to
Speaker 2: put it simply, you turned Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverly
Speaker 2: into Gary Trent and delonn Wright, and you bolstered at
Speaker 2: the forward position by giving yourself a legitimate backup forward
Speaker 2: to play behind Chris Middleton, which is something that you
Speaker 2: didn't have last year. So I think that given them,
Speaker 2: they're grading on a curve right, and the curve for
Speaker 2: the Bucks is their payroll situation. Grading on a curve.
Speaker 2: I thought the Bucks had an amazing offseason that that's
Speaker 2: going to be an interesting team to watch next year,
Speaker 2: especially if they can stay healthy. So all right, before
Speaker 2: we get out here, let's get to our mail bag.
Speaker 2: First question from a Warriors fan. The way I viewed
Speaker 2: small ball lineups has always been that it's an attempt
Speaker 2: to force as much shooting, spacing, passing, and quickness on
Speaker 2: the offensive end, mainly to target opponents slower biggs. But
Speaker 2: the only reasons these lineups end up small is due
Speaker 2: to these being guard skills. If you could have those
Speaker 2: same three attributes in five wing players on your team,
Speaker 2: you would rather run that as a small ball lineup
Speaker 2: than have small guards that could be exploited on the
Speaker 2: defensive end. The reason small ball lineups do become small
Speaker 2: is because those skills are much more easily found in
Speaker 2: smaller guards, and most, if not all NBA teams simply
Speaker 2: don't have five wings that are the five most skilled
Speaker 2: on their team. All that is to say, why the
Speaker 2: hell is Kerr running these four guard lineups when he
Speaker 2: could just as easily, due to the abundance of wing
Speaker 2: players with guard skills, get all the benefits of small
Speaker 2: ball lineups with only one guard out there, or even zero,
Speaker 2: and not be as vulnerable to counters that heavy guard
Speaker 2: lineups would face.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing.
Speaker 2: Guard skills a goat deeper than can you shoot? Can
Speaker 2: you dribble?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: A big part of guard skills, particularly within in the
Speaker 2: context of Golden State's offense, is read and react. What
Speaker 2: that means is it's like decision making when to cut,
Speaker 2: when to shoot, when to make that pass when a
Speaker 2: driving opportunity is available. Like decision making is key in
Speaker 2: the five out offense, especially alongside Steph Curry right, Like
Speaker 2: and like there was a play in the uh there
Speaker 2: was a play in the Tosa game today where Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum caught the ball in the in like the right
Speaker 2: corner area, and he caught and like stopped for a
Speaker 2: second and Steph cut right to the wing next to
Speaker 2: him and was wide open. But Tatum just like isn't
Speaker 2: used to playing with Steph and so he didn't make
Speaker 2: that quick decision and he missed the opportunity. And as
Speaker 2: much as embiid at a better game today with tim Usa,
Speaker 2: I thought Tatum had like his worst game with Timusa.
Speaker 2: His decision making was a super sloppy. He missed Lebron
Speaker 2: on the lob in transition, he missed Steph on that cut.
Speaker 2: He had some passes that he fumbled around the basket.
Speaker 2: It was just kind of a still struggling to shoot.
Speaker 2: So Tatum had a little bit of a rough night.
Speaker 2: But again the point is is like within Golden State's offense,
Speaker 2: you need guys that continue to funnel the action in
Speaker 2: the direction of Steph because that's your primary offensive engine.
Speaker 2: He's one of the best players in the world right
Speaker 2: And we have Steve Kerr on the record, by the
Speaker 2: way that he doesn't think Kamina and Wiggins can play together. Now,
Speaker 2: the data ended up being okay with them because they
Speaker 2: were athletic enough and in the regular season context, especially
Speaker 2: in the urgency of their playoff seating situation.
Speaker 3: They put up some good numbers, but I.
Speaker 2: Think the main concern for him there is even though Moody, Wiggins,
Speaker 2: and Kamina are all wings, and even though all three
Speaker 2: of them in theory have guard skills, I think he
Speaker 2: viewsed them as a group that you could never play
Speaker 2: together simply because the ball would stick. Andrew Wiggins has
Speaker 2: a tendency to randomly hijack possessions and take contested twenty footers.
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kaminga is obviously still a young player that thinks
Speaker 2: more offense should be run through him, and Moses Moody
Speaker 2: I think is probably the easiest of those three to
Speaker 2: just kind of like plug into the system, even he
Speaker 2: has a tendency to kind of like stick sometimes and
Speaker 2: force up some threes. Right, So, like those three guys,
Speaker 2: even though they're wings, they are not the types of
Speaker 2: guard skills that Steve Kerr is looking for within their
Speaker 2: five out offense in terms of quick ball in player movement,
Speaker 2: and so that's really the main kind of crux of it.
Speaker 2: Is like Steve Kerr would play a lot of lineups
Speaker 2: with like Steph Curry and Brandon Pizemski on the floor
Speaker 2: at the same time with like even sometimes with like
Speaker 2: Gary Payton or even like with Klay Thompson on the
Speaker 2: floor as well. He would do some of that because
Speaker 2: he trusted those guys to keep the ball moving around.
Speaker 2: That's the main reason for it. But like I believe
Speaker 2: if Steve curR actually thought Moody, Kaminga, and Wiggins can
Speaker 2: all do that, then he would lean into them and
Speaker 2: then you'd see this lanky athletic lineup out there. But
Speaker 2: I just think the offense would be really clunky without
Speaker 2: the real ball movement piece of it. How does one
Speaker 2: get into coaching without any college experience playing as an athlete.
Speaker 2: Coaching is a really it's it's very clicky, and it's
Speaker 2: it's very much like it's kind of like an old
Speaker 2: boys club in some ways in the sense that, like,
Speaker 2: especially at the college level, the dudes that have been
Speaker 2: doing it forever, they reward lower level coaches primarily based
Speaker 2: on like them grinding underneath them for a long time
Speaker 2: and like paying their dues.
Speaker 3: So to speak.
Speaker 2: There are college programs out there that reward young talent.
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna pretend like that doesn't take place, but
Speaker 2: it is difficult and so like, because the coaching environment
Speaker 2: is so clicky, you really have have to come in
Speaker 2: from the ground up. And so in the college level,
Speaker 2: that means try to get a job as like a
Speaker 2: graduate assistant somewhere, or maybe if you can look at
Speaker 2: the lower levels, at like the JUCO or an AI levels,
Speaker 2: you might be able to find something where you're a
Speaker 2: volunteer assistant or you're doing all the work but not
Speaker 2: making any or very little money. Right, But even within
Speaker 2: that context, like for years, you're gonna be doing stuff
Speaker 2: that sucks. You're gonna be making sure guys are attending class,
Speaker 2: going to recruiting trips in you know, Vegas to watch
Speaker 2: you know, twenty five high school basketball games in two days.
Speaker 2: You're gonna you're gonna be constantly dealing with drama behind
Speaker 2: the scenes as players are dealing with stuff because you're
Speaker 2: dealing with kids. Right at the NBA level, if you
Speaker 2: want to get your foot in the door and you
Speaker 2: don't have playing experience, you're gonna have to start in
Speaker 2: the film room. And it's like gar ready to just
Speaker 2: cut a bunch of film forever, right, or like maybe
Speaker 2: maybe you can parlay that into a job as a scout,
Speaker 2: which you can parlay into a lower level and assistant.
Speaker 2: But like, no matter what, the coaching sphere is never
Speaker 2: gonna reward talent early. You're going to have to grind
Speaker 2: and then maybe, just maybe you'll get an opportunity down
Speaker 2: the line. It's a very very difficult field to crack into.
Speaker 2: And I have friends that are that are doing it,
Speaker 2: that have had success. And like, I have a friend
Speaker 2: that I played played within college who's now coaching for
Speaker 2: the Phoenix Suns. That's awesome, Like he parlayed it into
Speaker 2: something big.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: I have a buddy of mine that I used to
Speaker 2: work out with in the summers who's now a video
Speaker 2: coordinator with the Phoenix Suns. Like he's at the lower level,
Speaker 2: but he's trying to grind his way up, right, Like,
Speaker 2: I've got several buddies that have been coaching at lower
Speaker 2: level college programs, right, And there are some of them
Speaker 2: that are still bouncing around lower level colleges, and then
Speaker 2: there are some of them that are rising up. There's
Speaker 2: a buddy of mine who's consistently taken leaps and now
Speaker 2: he's in the Pac twelve and he's doing really really well, right,
Speaker 2: so like, it's just tough. It's just tough.
Speaker 3: It's a grind.
Speaker 2: You have to be willing to kind of like quote
Speaker 2: unquote shovel shit for a little while to get into
Speaker 2: an opportunity to really be involved as a coach. But like,
Speaker 2: if you've got the cap ability, like if you're single
Speaker 2: and you and you can afford to go live in
Speaker 2: the middle of nowhere for a few years as you
Speaker 2: grind under somebody like, then you can do that.
Speaker 3: But it is a very very difficult field to crack into.
Speaker 2: How many live NBA games have you been to over
Speaker 2: the last few years and which NBA player is on
Speaker 2: your bucket list to see live? So I've been to
Speaker 2: three actual NBA games. I saw Anthony Davis years ago
Speaker 2: back when I was working at Verizon. They had like
Speaker 2: a thing where they all of Verizon like took a
Speaker 2: bunch of managers to a game, and it was like
Speaker 2: when Anthony Davis was on the Pelicans, and then I
Speaker 2: want to say, it was like Eric Gordon was on
Speaker 2: the I think Eric Gordon was the best player on
Speaker 2: that Suns team, if I remember correctly, But Ad ended
Speaker 2: up hitting a game winner in that game, So that
Speaker 2: was kind of cool. The second game that I went
Speaker 2: to was Lebron and the Cavs in twenty sixteen. It
Speaker 2: was in Phoenix as well, and this was the game
Speaker 2: more Kyrie Irving hit the huge dagger. This was, like
Speaker 2: I want to say, shortly after Christmas if I remember
Speaker 2: correctly that particular year, which that was cool because they
Speaker 2: ended up going on to win the title that year.
Speaker 2: And then I saw the twenty seventeen Calves when I
Speaker 2: lived in Charlotte. I saw the Hornets versus the Caves,
Speaker 2: and that was the best game I saw Lebron play.
Speaker 2: He had like thirty seven or something like that in
Speaker 2: that game. He hit a bunch of threes. But those
Speaker 2: are the only three actual NBA games I've been to.
Speaker 2: I live in Tucson, so like it's I have to
Speaker 2: like actually go somewhere to see a game. But I've
Speaker 2: been to like a bunch of really cool basketball events,
Speaker 2: Like I went to the TMUSA game on Wednesday last
Speaker 2: week against Canada.
Speaker 3: I've been to two. I went to.
Speaker 2: One Elite eight game out in Los Angeles at the
Speaker 2: at the then Staples Center. I saw Wisconsin versus Arizona.
Speaker 2: That was the game that Sam Decker hit like the
Speaker 2: rainbow of Ronde Hollis Jefferson.
Speaker 3: That kind of ice the game.
Speaker 2: So I've been to a bunch of basketball events, but
Speaker 2: not a ton of NBA games. Been to like twenty
Speaker 2: or thirty games at McHale Center to watch the University
Speaker 2: of Arizona play, obviously in Tucson. That's like the main
Speaker 2: basket caketball event that you go to. Which player is
Speaker 2: on your bucket list to see live? That's a good question.
Speaker 2: Seeing Steph with Team USA made me really want to
Speaker 2: go see him play with the Warriors, So I might
Speaker 2: try to get out and see him before he retires.
Speaker 2: Maybe next time he comes to Phoenix or something like that.
Speaker 2: Victor Webinyama, I feel like, is a mussy guy, love
Speaker 2: to see him in person.
Speaker 3: There's a bunch though.
Speaker 2: Anthony Edwards is quickly becoming my favorite player, so that'd
Speaker 2: be a guy I'd love to see all time. Starting five,
Speaker 2: using specific years of players such as twenty eighteen Lebron
Speaker 2: or twenty seventeen Kd, et cetera, I put twenty twenty
Speaker 2: two Steph at the point, I put nineteen ninety three
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan at the two I put nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 2: Larry Bird at the three, twenty eighteen, Lebron at the four,
Speaker 2: in two thousand and one, Shack at the five. I
Speaker 2: think those are like nineteen ninety three, MJ is the
Speaker 2: most dominant two guard that ever played, twenty eighteen, Lebron
Speaker 2: is the most dominant forward that ever played. Two thousand
Speaker 2: and one Show is probably the most dominant center that
Speaker 2: ever played. Larry Bird in nineteen eighty five was just
Speaker 2: at an insane efficiency level. I think that'd be a
Speaker 2: really interesting fit alongside all those guys. And I am
Speaker 2: of the opinion that twenty twenty two Steph, even though
Speaker 2: he had a little slump during the regular season between
Speaker 2: like how well he played in the regular season in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one and how well he played in the
Speaker 2: postseason in twenty twenty two, I still think that version
Speaker 2: of Steph was the best. Big part of it, too,
Speaker 2: is just the coverages he was facing. Like I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I'm just more impressed by Steph dealing with blitzes and
Speaker 2: top locking and all this crazy shit that he sees
Speaker 2: now than fifteen in twenty sixteen, when he was still
Speaker 2: seeing a lot of drop coverage in barbecuing guys and so, like,
Speaker 2: I do think Steph was at his best when he
Speaker 2: hoisted the trophy in twenty twenty two. Do you think
Speaker 2: the Bucks is currently constructed have any chance of winning
Speaker 2: the title next year? Their biggest move this offseason was
Speaker 2: losing Malik Beasley. Also, Dame Brooke and Middleton aren't getting
Speaker 2: any younger. This mail back question might have come in.
Speaker 2: It might have come in before the Gary Trent signing.
Speaker 2: I actually think they upgraded a couple of their lower
Speaker 2: level players. Like, as long as everyone's healthy and the
Speaker 2: continuity is there, you get a full camp with Doc Rivers.
Speaker 2: I haven't ranked my teams out West or out East yet.
Speaker 2: I still think they're below Boston. But like as we saw,
Speaker 2: if you get an upset, right like Denver got knocked
Speaker 2: off by Minnesota, what if Boston gets knocked off by
Speaker 2: New York next year, and then what if New York
Speaker 2: ends up being a tough matchup for Milwaukee and Milwaukee
Speaker 2: ends up beating New York, they could get in right, So, like,
Speaker 2: I still think anything could happen.
Speaker 3: I absolutely I will probably end up.
Speaker 2: Splitting the tiers up very similarly to last year, where
Speaker 2: it's like the actual bona fide top tier contenders, and
Speaker 2: then it's like the Puncher's Chance contenders, And like, my
Speaker 2: guess is Milwaukee's gonna be near the top of that
Speaker 2: particular list with those punchers Chance guys, which means they
Speaker 2: absolutely can win the title, right Like Dallas. Say what
Speaker 2: you want about Dallas, they were there, right, they made it,
Speaker 2: so I think it'd be silly to say they couldn't win. Obviously,
Speaker 2: I think they're further away than people think, but I
Speaker 2: do think the Bucks are at a similar level there.
Speaker 2: With the lack of a true bulky power forward, I
Speaker 2: think Philly will use a double big lineup with two
Speaker 2: centers and play a zone defense or something like that
Speaker 2: at times. Or do you think they have to go
Speaker 2: get a power forward in the trade market. I think
Speaker 2: they Obviously they're poised to potentially make a trade that
Speaker 2: they need to. They have some draft compensation, But I
Speaker 2: own a double. A second part of this mailback question
Speaker 2: is the questioners said that he thinks Embiid has the
Speaker 2: skill to play the four on offense. The main piece
Speaker 2: there is foot speed. I think if you put a
Speaker 2: center next to Eimbiid, I think the overall foot speed
Speaker 2: of your lineup would be bad, and I think you'd
Speaker 2: really struggle in transition. I do not view Embiid as
Speaker 2: a four. I think he has to play the five.
Speaker 2: The second piece of it is like the reality of
Speaker 2: their predicament in the sense that, like, it doesn't make
Speaker 2: sense to just put a big power forward next to
Speaker 2: him unless it's a good player. And more often than not,
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna end up just going down with
Speaker 2: Paul George, Kelly Ubray and Joel Embiid at the three
Speaker 2: four five is what I anticipate they will do. And again,
Speaker 2: like Paul George and and Kelly u Bray are two
Speaker 2: pretty good athletes, so I think they can make I
Speaker 2: think they can make up for the lack of that
Speaker 2: like truly imposing power forward and innb just by him
Speaker 2: elf brings a certain imposition on that front line. Thoughts
Speaker 2: on Jaden Springer's potential to crack the Celtics rotation, Ah,
Speaker 2: you know, it's hard to say because the rotation, like
Speaker 2: especially with Sam Houser and Peyton Pritchard and their development
Speaker 2: is pretty iron tight. I do think he'll still play
Speaker 2: quite a bit in the regular season to crack the
Speaker 2: regular rotation, he'd have to be a better decision maker.
Speaker 2: Like within the Celtics driving kick offense, you need guys
Speaker 2: that can dribble, shoot and pass and like and make decisions,
Speaker 2: and those are specific weaknesses of Jaden Springer's. He's one
Speaker 2: of the most exciting, like young point of attack athletes
Speaker 2: to watch, Like when you watch him hound a ball handler,
Speaker 2: full court chase over the top of the screens, he
Speaker 2: could be downright disruptive. He's a super exciting athlete. But
Speaker 2: like within the Celtic's decision making and their five oh
Speaker 2: how deliberate they are with their spacing all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff, It's hard for me to imagine him cracking
Speaker 2: the rotation. But he'll have his moments in the regular season,
Speaker 2: just by virtue of trying to get through those eighty
Speaker 2: two games, which two guys from this year's team USA
Speaker 2: not counting Celtics so the most likely are most likely
Speaker 2: to say that they enjoy playing with each other and
Speaker 2: team up within the next two seasons. I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: treat this as most likely. I'm gonna treat this as
Speaker 2: what I want as a fan, because I don't really
Speaker 2: get into the reporting side and I'm not really sure
Speaker 2: who's closest to being ready to leave versus who's not,
Speaker 2: so on and so forth. As a fan, though, I
Speaker 2: would love to see Bam and AD play together. Every
Speaker 2: time those two are on the floor, it's just fun
Speaker 2: to watch how frightening they are defensively on the front line.
Speaker 2: They're both flashing a lot of higher level offensive stuff
Speaker 2: with Team USA as well. Those two guys are easily
Speaker 2: the ones i'd want to see. Can you make a
Speaker 2: video about basketball?
Speaker 3: Terms?
Speaker 2: For casual beginner basketball fans, sometimes you say basketball plays
Speaker 2: which I just can't visualize and understand. So it's hard
Speaker 2: to say that we'd make a video on it just
Speaker 2: simply because there's not a whole lot to market with
Speaker 2: that in terms of like actually trying to turn it
Speaker 2: into like a real.
Speaker 3: Show, so to speak.
Speaker 2: But I have heard feedback from multiple levels, not just
Speaker 2: you guys, but also from my higher ups that like
Speaker 2: they want me to like continue to break the down
Speaker 2: really in the minutia, even when I've already done so
Speaker 2: in the past. And so one of my goals for
Speaker 2: next season is to continue to kind of really break
Speaker 2: down simple actions, like just to try to help the
Speaker 2: casual viewers that come into our show a little bit
Speaker 2: more infrequently. One of the other things we're doing now
Speaker 2: is we're using more video. We're using more like actual
Speaker 2: footage of NBA games, and we're also using our little
Speaker 2: play clipboard that we use now where I can use
Speaker 2: some x's and o's to demonstrate some concepts to you guys.
Speaker 2: We're going to continue to incorporate that over the course
Speaker 2: of the next few years, and it is my goal
Speaker 2: for that to be better, that to be a better
Speaker 2: experience for you casual NBA fans. So I do appreciate
Speaker 2: the comment, and it is something we're working on.
Speaker 3: Two more.
Speaker 2: Or one more than one announcement. Since you've been watching
Speaker 2: the NBA, what has been your favorite slash most memorable
Speaker 2: season twenty sixteen? By far, you had STEP's unanimous MVP campaign,
Speaker 2: which was full of all these crazy moments, peaking with
Speaker 2: that game winner against Okay see when he just dribbled
Speaker 2: into a forty footer. You had Kobe's sixty point game
Speaker 2: in his final game of the regular season. You had
Speaker 2: the Warriors get to seventy three wins on the final
Speaker 2: game of the season, and then we had that epic
Speaker 2: Calves Warriors. Well, first of all, we had the Warriors
Speaker 2: Thunder series in the conference finals that was insane, and
Speaker 2: then we had the epic Calves Warriors NBA Finals which
Speaker 2: went seven games and ended on a Lebron James block
Speaker 2: and a Kyrie Irving step back three. So it's hard
Speaker 2: to beat that because that was just an incredible NBA
Speaker 2: season For me personally, that will always be the most memorable,
Speaker 2: at least until we see something better, right, And last,
Speaker 2: before we get out of here, last night was the
Speaker 2: finale of The Acolyte and super super interesting on a
Speaker 2: bunch of different levels. We had a concrete drop of
Speaker 2: Darth Plagas, who is my favorite Star Wars character ever
Speaker 2: and the main character of my favorite Star Wars book ever,
Speaker 2: which is the book called Plagas or Darth Plugas. And
Speaker 2: I did an episode of Two Suns podcast with my
Speaker 2: buddy Luke.
Speaker 3: That's this one over here.
Speaker 2: You guys can find that on YouTube or wherever you
Speaker 2: get your podcasts, and we broke down for like forty
Speaker 2: five minutes all the different elements from the Acolyte finale.
Speaker 2: I'm also later today going to release a breakdown of
Speaker 2: episode five of House of the Dragon, so make sure
Speaker 2: for your Star Wars fans and Game of Thrones fans
Speaker 2: hop over to my other pod and check those out.
Speaker 2: As always, I sincerely appreciate you, guys. That's all we
Speaker 2: have for today. Tomorrow, I believe you're releasing the Heimihawks interview,
Speaker 2: so keep an eye on the feeds for that. We're
Speaker 2: gonna be running breakouts of the mail bag and stuff
Speaker 2: throughout the rest of this weekend, and we'll be back
Speaker 2: producing new content next week on Monday. And I think
Speaker 2: we're gonna be starting our player rankings then, and that's
Speaker 2: gonna get kind of confusing because.
Speaker 3: I want to do two lists.
Speaker 2: I want to do a because there's so many people
Speaker 2: that get pissed off at me for where I rank
Speaker 2: guys because they don't realize how I rank guys. I
Speaker 2: want to do two lists. I want to do Actually,
Speaker 2: let's pitch this to you guys, and I want to
Speaker 2: see if you guys can give me some ideas. I
Speaker 2: want to do two lists permanently in the future. I
Speaker 2: want to do an in the in a vacuum list,
Speaker 2: which is like if we had a full on NBA
Speaker 2: draft of all four hundred and fifty NBA players, who
Speaker 2: would go number one, who would go number two, who
Speaker 2: would go number three if you were starting a franchise
Speaker 2: from scratch for that season, right, for full eighty two
Speaker 2: games and a playoff rount Right, that's my in avacuum list.
Speaker 2: And then I want like a bragging rights list, which
Speaker 2: is like who had the best season overall in terms
Speaker 2: of how dominant they were, how far they went into postseason,
Speaker 2: Like who's the guy that gets to point at all
Speaker 2: the other players and was like I was the best
Speaker 2: guy last year? Like who wins wins the bragging rights?
Speaker 2: Those are the two types of lists I want to make,
Speaker 2: and we don't have any real marketing strategy for how
Speaker 2: to do that. So if any of you guys have
Speaker 2: any ideas for what we could call those two lists,
Speaker 2: drop them in the comments because we're probably gonna get
Speaker 2: started with that next week.
Speaker 3: All right, guys, That is all I have for today.
Speaker 2: Is always like I said, I sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 2: for rocking with me.
Speaker 3: We will see you tomorrow for the Heimhakz Interview.
Speaker 2: The volume