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Speaker 1: the Nick led the Mavericks by nine points with half
Speaker 1: a minute left, um first time in something like thirteen
Speaker 1: thousand tries in NBA history that someone came back to
Speaker 1: win that game. Ironically, very similar instance with the Lakers
Speaker 1: and the Sixers earlier this year where they were down
Speaker 1: by nine and with I think twenty eight seconds left
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis actually had a free throughout the end
Speaker 1: to win that game and he missed it. So that
Speaker 1: was your other time that it almost happened earlier this season. UM,
Speaker 1: classic things you see in in big collapses, like there
Speaker 1: was a missed free throw at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: there was a turnover which was a jump ball effectively
Speaker 1: UM that Luke end up winning the jump ball. And
Speaker 1: then just some bad Knicks defense, like they conceded an
Speaker 1: easy post up to Luca don Chich in the final
Speaker 1: minute on a on a sideline out of bounds. Uh,
Speaker 1: they just let Christian and would take a wide open
Speaker 1: three on the right wing, and then they botched a
Speaker 1: switch or Spencer didn't what he got open on the
Speaker 1: left wing and knocked down to three. Even on Lucas
Speaker 1: and one the crazy putback, not the put back after
Speaker 1: the misfree throw, but the one before that. UM. Emmanuel
Speaker 1: quickly was guarding him and missed a box out and
Speaker 1: Luca ended up getting u an and one. So again
Speaker 1: little details. If you're up nine with thirty seconds left,
Speaker 1: you should be able to win that game. You just
Speaker 1: have to continue to do the job. And that's an
Speaker 1: important thing. I wanted to go on a quick rant
Speaker 1: about because we saw Chicago and Milwaukee. This happened again
Speaker 1: last night where Milwaukee had a big lead late in
Speaker 1: the game and then they choked that one away. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, teams get accustomed to playing a certain way
Speaker 1: that allows them to gain an advantage in the game.
Speaker 1: They build a lead playing their brand of basketball. But
Speaker 1: then what happens is is they get a lead and
Speaker 1: they get into the fourth quarter, and instead of continuing
Speaker 1: to play the style of basketball they played when they
Speaker 1: got the lead, they changed their style to play and
Speaker 1: they start to pull their foot off the gas and
Speaker 1: they start to try to strangle the pace and work
Speaker 1: the shot clock down every single time, and there's very
Speaker 1: little player movement, and then teams slowly start to chip
Speaker 1: away them because usually those possessions end in lake clock
Speaker 1: jump shots. Jump shots lead to long rebounds. Long rebounds
Speaker 1: lead to transition opportunities. The other team is trying to
Speaker 1: play fast because they're desperate, and things tend to fall apart.
Speaker 1: It's a little lesson there. Um. You know, obviously you
Speaker 1: want to reign in your decision making a little bit,
Speaker 1: like you want to take away the high difficulty plays
Speaker 1: or the high risk high reward passes, but you want
Speaker 1: to continue to play with the same style of play
Speaker 1: that you had when you got the lead in the
Speaker 1: first place. Sometimes teams are so obsessed with running the
Speaker 1: clock out that they end up costing themselves games in
Speaker 1: the process. But then Luca closed the deal in ot
Speaker 1: with a nifty turnaround jump shot over Julius Randol. He
Speaker 1: finished the game with sixty points, twenty one rebounds, and
Speaker 1: ten assists, which is just ludicrous. I mean, what words
Speaker 1: am I supposed to use to say uh to you?
Speaker 1: What words should I use to describe what's effectively a
Speaker 1: stat line that not even Will Chamberlain at his peak
Speaker 1: could have pulled could have pulled off. Every time I
Speaker 1: dive into Luca film, I'm always amazed with the ease
Speaker 1: with which that he gets to his spots. And you know,
Speaker 1: there's a combination of a couple of different things that
Speaker 1: he does to get to his spots that I think,
Speaker 1: in particular, young players should pay very close attention to.
Speaker 1: So there's two concepts that I wanted to talk about
Speaker 1: really quick with Luca. First of all, is the way
Speaker 1: that his ball fakes and his body fakes allow him
Speaker 1: to get defenders out of position because at its core,
Speaker 1: in order for Luca to get to his spots, he
Speaker 1: has to beat supreme athletes off the dribble. We're talking
Speaker 1: about supreme athletes in the entire MBA because those are
Speaker 1: the types of defenders that are getting the Luca matchup
Speaker 1: in general and Luca. Look again, if we saw Luca
Speaker 1: playing in a pickup game, he'd be one of the
Speaker 1: most athletic players on the floor. But in the n
Speaker 1: b A, he's not. Like the vast majority of perimeter
Speaker 1: defenders he goes against are significantly quicker than him and
Speaker 1: probably have longer arms than him, probably can jump higher
Speaker 1: than him. But he has to find a way to
Speaker 1: get around them, and step one is using amazing ball
Speaker 1: fakes and head fakes to get advantages that he can
Speaker 1: then attack with his size and physicality. UM. I talked
Speaker 1: about this all the time with my young players when
Speaker 1: I'm when I'm training them with the high school team
Speaker 1: that I coach. Uh, it doesn't matter if you do
Speaker 1: a drible combination like an in and out crossover through
Speaker 1: the legs, if it's just the ball moving. Every single
Speaker 1: one of those moves has to be associated with a
Speaker 1: credible attack So if I'm in a high hesitation, the
Speaker 1: high hesitation isn't going to get a defender to step
Speaker 1: up on me unless I'm credibly able to rise up
Speaker 1: and knock down a jump shot. If I do a
Speaker 1: hard step forward into a step back, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: get any separation from that unless there's a credible threat
Speaker 1: that I'm going to drive to the basket. And the
Speaker 1: same thing goes with every single dribble move and in
Speaker 1: and out isn't gonna accomplish anything unless you've shown a
Speaker 1: tendency to cross over to the left side. If you've
Speaker 1: shown a tendency to cross over to the left side,
Speaker 1: then when you pull it back, the defender might lun
Speaker 1: that way. Same thing with the crossover, same thing with
Speaker 1: between the legs triple, same thing with the behind the
Speaker 1: back dribble. Everything needs to be associated with a credible attack.
Speaker 1: And that's what's so cool. If you watch Luca, Luca
Speaker 1: might take a little fifteen foot fade away over Julius Randall,
Speaker 1: but if you watch the possession, he's making six or
Speaker 1: seven moves, and on every single move, if you pose
Speaker 1: it right when he's in the bridge of the move,
Speaker 1: you're gonna see that he could go that way, and
Speaker 1: he probably has gone that way during that game. Everything
Speaker 1: is built on a counter and so defenders are constantly
Speaker 1: off balance. But this is where it's key, because if
Speaker 1: you beat a guy off the dribble and he's a
Speaker 1: better athlete than you, he can recover. And so this
Speaker 1: is the second lesson. Lesson one, You've got to sell
Speaker 1: every single move with every part of your body and
Speaker 1: you have to have a credible ability to do the
Speaker 1: counter to that move for it to work. Step two.
Speaker 1: This is the advantage of having real size and strength
Speaker 1: as a ball handler. In short, don't skip the weight
Speaker 1: room when you have an angle and you blow through
Speaker 1: that angle like Luca does. In order to stop the
Speaker 1: recovery from the defender, you've got to be able to
Speaker 1: pin him on that shoulder or on your back side.
Speaker 1: That's where the weight room is so important. Luca gets
Speaker 1: these guys that are supreme athletes pinned on his side
Speaker 1: or pinned on his back side, and then they can't
Speaker 1: do anything with him because he has them in jail
Speaker 1: and they're not gonna bother him at all. At that point,
Speaker 1: then he can methodically work down to either a mid
Speaker 1: range spot, a short range spot, or all the way
Speaker 1: to the rim, or to draw that help defender to
Speaker 1: start making those passes. You know, it's funny because coming
Speaker 1: into the league that was the big concern, and a
Speaker 1: lot of the Luca detractors were so heavily focused on
Speaker 1: the fact that he was slow that they didn't think
Speaker 1: he'd be able to get drible penetration. But everything when
Speaker 1: it comes to drible penetration is a combination of what
Speaker 1: you can do to get defenders off balance. You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like route running in the NFL. If
Speaker 1: you sell everything well, you don't have to be the
Speaker 1: fastest guy. You just have to sell every move well
Speaker 1: to get people off balance. And then when people are
Speaker 1: off balance, what is your advantage? Are you super fast?
Speaker 1: Because if you're super fast, your job more rate. You're
Speaker 1: getting all the way to the rim every single time.
Speaker 1: Are you super strong like Luca is, Then you can
Speaker 1: pin guys on your backside or on your side and
Speaker 1: start to work yourself to your spots. Intention doesn't even
Speaker 1: make sense that I wanted to show you guys something
Speaker 1: just for a little perspective. Usually, when we see a
Speaker 1: big man put up twenty points, and twenty rebounds in
Speaker 1: a game. We considered that complete physical dominance of the game. Right,
Speaker 1: that was like the shock stat or the Dwight Howard
Speaker 1: Staffard's like he's controlled that game. As a big man.
Speaker 1: A forty point ten assist game is considered like an
Speaker 1: offensive masterpiece for a perimeter initiator, right That means you're
Speaker 1: scoring the shift out of the ball and you're creating
Speaker 1: shots for your teammates. Luca did both in the same game.
Speaker 1: He had a game and a forty ten game separately.
Speaker 1: In the same game. He dominated the game physically and
Speaker 1: he dominated the game as a perimeter initiator. Absolutely wild stuff.
Speaker 1: The talent in the NBA is getting out of control.
Speaker 1: So if we're talking MVP candidates, which we've done a
Speaker 1: lot over the last week, we talked about Jayson tatum Um,
Speaker 1: who I believe is the Vegas frontrunner right now. We
Speaker 1: talked about Janice, who was my pick before the season.
Speaker 1: We talked about Yoki, who's on off stats are so
Speaker 1: ridiculous that if the Nuggets finished well enough, he's going
Speaker 1: to be in that conversation. We talked about k d
Speaker 1: Um the other day, who if the season ended right now,
Speaker 1: would be my pick for m v P, and Lucas
Speaker 1: just playing just as well as those four guys are.
Speaker 1: So we have like, obviously the Mavericks need to win
Speaker 1: more games, but we have like five guys that are
Speaker 1: really legitimate MVP candidates, and then you have like Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: Joel and b John morand Zion Williamson. These are all
Speaker 1: guys that are kind of like on the fringe of
Speaker 1: that conversation. It's wild to see nine legitimate MVP candidates
Speaker 1: this far into the season, you know, if we look
Speaker 1: at the standings, so the top eight teams in the
Speaker 1: league right now are Boston, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Denver, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Memphis, Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: All eight of those teams are separated by just four
Speaker 1: games in the standings. So what that means is any
Speaker 1: of those nine names that I mentioned are really just
Speaker 1: a few dominant weeks of basketball away from entering the
Speaker 1: MVP discussion with legitimacy. Obviously, Stephen Luca are the weird
Speaker 1: ones there because they're so far back, but in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference, both of them are still not that far
Speaker 1: back relative to how many games there are left in
Speaker 1: the season. So it's crazy to think that, like, I
Speaker 1: still think Janice will be the one who ends up
Speaker 1: getting it at the end of the day. I think
Speaker 1: he's been dealing with a lot of injury issues and
Speaker 1: I believe that when they get healthy, they'll go on
Speaker 1: a run and Janice will remind everybody who's what he's
Speaker 1: capable of. But really it's any it's anybody's award at
Speaker 1: this point, and lucas just as capable as anybody else.
Speaker 1: And it seems like every day we focus on someone new,
Speaker 1: like today it's Luca. There's just another guy the next
Speaker 1: day that plays insanely well and then we have to
Speaker 1: talk about him. But the league isn't credibly stacked with talent.
Speaker 1: And then you look at it from a global standpoint, Janice, Nicola, Yogich,
Speaker 1: Luka don Chech and Joel Embid that's four of the
Speaker 1: top what six, seven eight players in the world, and
Speaker 1: they're all international players, which makes me really excited just
Speaker 1: for basketball in the future, because you know, like the
Speaker 1: NBA is never going to compete with the NFL from
Speaker 1: a ratings standpoint within the us UM, but because basketball
Speaker 1: is a global game, the actual gap in revenue that
Speaker 1: their league generate is not that crazy. Like, if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, I think the NFL makes about seventeen billion
Speaker 1: a year and I think the NBA makes about ten
Speaker 1: billion a year, right, and so like that's an achievable gap,
Speaker 1: but that gap can only be achieved outside of the
Speaker 1: United States because of the stranglehold that the NFL has
Speaker 1: on the United States. So like to see the top
Speaker 1: of the league basically half of the top tier superstars
Speaker 1: in the league be international players is super exciting because
Speaker 1: what that means is over the course of the next
Speaker 1: ten to fifteen years, over the length of these guys careers,
Speaker 1: the league will only grow further and further in popularity
Speaker 1: outside of the United States of America. So it's just
Speaker 1: it's just a really good time to be an NBA fan,
Speaker 1: and I'm really excited to see where we're gonna be
Speaker 1: ten fifteen years from now. Alright, So, the Minnesota Timberwolves
Speaker 1: in the New Orleans Pelicans had a super entertaining game
Speaker 1: last night. Uh, first of all, I am not going
Speaker 1: to talk about officiating in this game. Um, even on
Speaker 1: that last play with Gobert and Zion like he's a
Speaker 1: straight up. But then as soon as I went up,
Speaker 1: he came down on him. Refs are always gonna call
Speaker 1: verticality a foul if the arms come down, and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: are there some calls here there that I might have
Speaker 1: disagreed with? Sure, But you guys know how I feel
Speaker 1: about officiating. Like officiating is on any given day going
Speaker 1: to benefit one team or the other. I think it's
Speaker 1: lame to focus on it. It's outside of your control.
Speaker 1: In general, I think the officiating in the NBA needs work,
Speaker 1: but it's goes with all thirty teams. No one's that
Speaker 1: there is no one that's benefiting from it more than
Speaker 1: another team or anything along those lines. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I just think it's boring and uninteresting. And you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get me to talk about officiating much. Uh, We're
Speaker 1: just gonna focus on the basketball in this particular game.
Speaker 1: But it was a two point game early in the third,
Speaker 1: and then Rudy Gobert committed two quick fouls to start
Speaker 1: the third quarter. Then not naz Reid comes in, and uh.
Speaker 1: In today's episode of Jason Hates Centers That Can't Shoot,
Speaker 1: the Wolves were plus six and nas Reid's minutes last
Speaker 1: night and minus six with Gobert. Now I do want
Speaker 1: to say. I did think that Gobert played a really
Speaker 1: nice shift in the fourth quarter. He had a nifty
Speaker 1: transition lay up where he took some long steps around
Speaker 1: a defender to the right. He had that kind of
Speaker 1: rondo fake where he stuck the ball out and then
Speaker 1: came around and shot a hook shot, and I thought
Speaker 1: he defended pretty well aside from that last play on Zion,
Speaker 1: like keep your hands up, like Zion was gonna miss
Speaker 1: that lay up, he was completely off balanced. Instead, he
Speaker 1: came down and bailed Zion out with the foul um.
Speaker 1: But nasa Read came in early in that third quarter
Speaker 1: and the Wolves just took off from their natural five
Speaker 1: out space, driving lanes open up. Anthony Edwards started getting
Speaker 1: to the rim a lot um. There was even a
Speaker 1: really nice player with noz Reid caught on a pick
Speaker 1: and pop with ' angelo Russell and Pump faked and
Speaker 1: Jonas Valanjunis came out of his shoes. Naz Reid got
Speaker 1: downhill and made a really nice kick out past the
Speaker 1: Austin Rivers in the corner for three. The offense just
Speaker 1: looks so fluid with nas Read on the floor. I
Speaker 1: also wanted to shot a shout out Jalen no Well here, uh,
Speaker 1: I think I think he only finished the game five
Speaker 1: for eleven, but he was really impressive with his shot
Speaker 1: making in the second half, and he's got some legit
Speaker 1: three level scoring ability with some real athletic pop. Um.
Speaker 1: He's actually a very exciting young player for them, someone
Speaker 1: that I think, you know, if you really start to
Speaker 1: look forward with the Timberwolves, it's hard to imagine D'Angel
Speaker 1: Russell being here long term. Um. So if that's the case,
Speaker 1: Jalen Noel kind of is projecting to be a good
Speaker 1: two guard to put alongside Anthony Edwards in the long run. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know. And then Adilo just Delo again after
Speaker 1: the game, was complaining about Zion playing football, and again
Speaker 1: I just think it's lame to complain about officiating and
Speaker 1: makes she sounds soft and the other thing too resigned
Speaker 1: before we get in design here, because obviously he's the
Speaker 1: hero the night, We're gonna talk about him a lot.
Speaker 1: The Yes, he drops his shoulder and tries to run
Speaker 1: everybody over. So does he Honest, so did Lebron in
Speaker 1: his prime, so did Shack back in the day. But
Speaker 1: the reality is regardless of how you feel about it,
Speaker 1: it's allowed and it works. And the three guys who
Speaker 1: did it before Zion all one championships. So if we
Speaker 1: saw Shack do it, and we saw Lebron do it,
Speaker 1: we saw you honest do it. You have to understand
Speaker 1: that Zion is gonna do it and it's kind of
Speaker 1: part of the deal. So you had better build a
Speaker 1: wall and you had better put your body on the
Speaker 1: line or he's gonna be finishing around the rim all
Speaker 1: game long. That's just the reality. No amount of complaining
Speaker 1: to the press is going to cover for that. It's
Speaker 1: the officially. I don't care how many a handful of
Speaker 1: calls either way that you might get to sway because
Speaker 1: you've been complaining. The reality is is if you can't
Speaker 1: stop Zion from getting to the rim, you're gonna lose,
Speaker 1: just like everyone else who came before him. So it's
Speaker 1: it's just a lesson that that uh, that DEALO and
Speaker 1: the Wolves need to learn. Really the rest of the
Speaker 1: league needs to learn. Um. But I thought the story
Speaker 1: of this particular game was Zion's passing. He made really
Speaker 1: nice reads all night long. Um. There was actually a
Speaker 1: stat that came from the from the Wolves broadcast that
Speaker 1: I was watching. More than sixty percent of Zion's assist
Speaker 1: this year are the three point shooters. He's got really
Speaker 1: good chemistry with Trey Murphy. Two plays in the third
Speaker 1: quarter where he drew double teams and made really nice
Speaker 1: cross court passes to Trey Murphy for three um. But
Speaker 1: then in the fourth quarter was just a complete wrecking
Speaker 1: ball of him going to the rim. He also hit
Speaker 1: a huge three with two minutes left that put the
Speaker 1: Pells back within two when they were down five, and
Speaker 1: then he had a defensive play a steel on a
Speaker 1: swing pass uh that he ran out for dunk to
Speaker 1: put the Pelicans up up by two with less than
Speaker 1: a minute left. Then they go down to the other
Speaker 1: end and Anthony Edwards just hits Jackson Hayes with like
Speaker 1: a hesitation, gets downhill with his left hand and takes
Speaker 1: like a jump stop and then just elevates up and
Speaker 1: just dunks on the entire on the entire team. And
Speaker 1: I remember sitting there thinking like, remember what I told
Speaker 1: you guys about And I view him as like a
Speaker 1: kind of like a guard Lebron, just this relentless downhill threat.
Speaker 1: And he's young now, so he's still trying to figure out,
Speaker 1: you know, the timing of one to do that and
Speaker 1: when not to. But when he gets going downhill, there's
Speaker 1: just really nothing anybody can do with him. His finishing
Speaker 1: ability is really impressed. He had a he had like
Speaker 1: a late I think it was in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: a drive along the right wing where he went up
Speaker 1: and under and finished with his left hand in traffic
Speaker 1: on the other side of the rim. I think over
Speaker 1: you on his valancunis if I remember correctly, and I
Speaker 1: was like, this is this is just next level rim
Speaker 1: finishing from this guy. Um. But then we get to
Speaker 1: the final play and Zion draws a double team and
Speaker 1: he kicks it to Naji Marshall in the corner and
Speaker 1: he misses the three. Um Delo throws kind of a
Speaker 1: pitiful box out towards Dyson. Daniels just kind of turns
Speaker 1: and puts his back on him. But Dyson's taller, more athletic,
Speaker 1: and was being more physically aggressive on this play, gets
Speaker 1: the offensive rebound, throws a kick pass to Zion who's
Speaker 1: cutting down the lane, and Anthony Edwards gambles into the
Speaker 1: passing lane instead of just keeping his body in front
Speaker 1: of Zion. He gambles and misses, so Zion's got a
Speaker 1: head of steamy. Rudy Gobert goes up with verticality and
Speaker 1: I think he would have got Zion to miss, but
Speaker 1: he came down with his arms and that's gonna be
Speaker 1: a foul call every single time. Then they go down
Speaker 1: to the other end of the floor and Anthony Edwards misses. Uh.
Speaker 1: He kind of fell over trying to dribble towards the
Speaker 1: baseline and miss a little pull up jump shot, and
Speaker 1: then the game was over. But I want to talk
Speaker 1: about Zion because the Pelicans have now won four games
Speaker 1: in a row and they are now tied for the
Speaker 1: third best record in the league, just two and a
Speaker 1: half games back of first place UM in the entire league.
Speaker 1: Zion is starting to build a real M v P
Speaker 1: case like we were talking about earlier. So for the season,
Speaker 1: he's averaging twenty seven and five on sixty troop shooting,
Speaker 1: which is a career high in efficiency last eleven games,
Speaker 1: thirty one points, eight rebounds and six assist six from
Speaker 1: the field from three on low volume, seventy from the line,
Speaker 1: two point three stocks per game, and the pell Kins
Speaker 1: are seven and four in that span, despite brandon Ingram
Speaker 1: being out for every single one of those games. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Zion's attack, his success is built on a
Speaker 1: similar It doesn't look the same, but it's built on
Speaker 1: a similar formula to what Janice does. Teams cannot keep
Speaker 1: him away from the rim with the single defender, even
Speaker 1: with teams building walls and stuff. He gets to the
Speaker 1: rim a ton. He's second in the league in restricted
Speaker 1: area makes per game at eight point three, and he
Speaker 1: shoots seventy when he's there. Then, while he's not a
Speaker 1: surgical passer, he's very good at hitting shooters and cutters
Speaker 1: when teams build the wall in front of him. So
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where it's not the same
Speaker 1: as you honest, Like I said, he's not nearly the
Speaker 1: defensive player that Janice is, But in terms of fundamentally
Speaker 1: how he can warp a defense and create shots at
Speaker 1: the rim or passing to shooters or cutters, it is
Speaker 1: very similar um to what Zion does and or to
Speaker 1: what Janice does. So when Zion passes out of the
Speaker 1: post this year, the Pelicans score one point one nine
Speaker 1: points per pos session, which is best in the league
Speaker 1: among players who have passed out of the post at
Speaker 1: least fifty times this year. When he passes out of ISO,
Speaker 1: the Pelicans score one point zero six points per possession,
Speaker 1: which is third best in the league among players who
Speaker 1: have done it at least fifty times, behind Janice and
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid. So, like, it's not surgical, you know, it's
Speaker 1: not Luca, it's not Lebron, it's not Chris Paul, it's
Speaker 1: not Nickela Yokich. But because of the amount of gravity
Speaker 1: he has towards the rim, he is creating shots with
Speaker 1: the past at an extremely high level, arguably in the
Speaker 1: top tier of players in the league when you're looking
Speaker 1: at post ups and ISOs um So, detractors are gonna
Speaker 1: still point it like his defensive limitations, which there's some
Speaker 1: legitimacy there, Like, yes, he's better than he has been.
Speaker 1: He's he's more of a defensive playmaker now than he
Speaker 1: used to be. Kind of like that steel, like the
Speaker 1: steel for the dunk. That's defensive playmaking. That's not the
Speaker 1: same as like being consistently good on the defensive end
Speaker 1: on a possession by possession basis. But he's adding defensive playmaking,
Speaker 1: which is good. But detractors are gonna point to the
Speaker 1: defensive end, and they're also going to point to the
Speaker 1: fact that he's missed eight games, which will hurt him
Speaker 1: in the in the m v P case, but he
Speaker 1: unquestionably has a case. And most importantly, you know, you
Speaker 1: gotta look at um where we are in this field
Speaker 1: right now. All the top eight teams are four games apart.
Speaker 1: It might stay jumbled all year, but somebody might pull away,
Speaker 1: and if somebody pulls away from that group, that guy
Speaker 1: is gonna end up getting the m v P. Even
Speaker 1: like he would. I would be really hard for me
Speaker 1: to vote for Zion, just because you guys know my criteria,
Speaker 1: Like you've got to be in the conversation for best
Speaker 1: player in the world, and I don't think Zion is
Speaker 1: UM And then you know, obviously the defensive end of
Speaker 1: factor is going to factor in significantly for me. So
Speaker 1: just me. But that's just me that wouldn't necessarily vote
Speaker 1: for him based on my criteria. Everyone's got different criteria.
Speaker 1: The voting pool loves new young players. I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised at all um if Zion ended up getting some
Speaker 1: MVP votes, especially if the Pelicans end up pulling away
Speaker 1: from the field last on Anthony Edwards. He's really picking
Speaker 1: up steam over the course of the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: Obviously he's great last night. He's averaging twenty nine points,
Speaker 1: seven rebounds, and six assists in his last six games,
Speaker 1: really benefiting benefiting from the spacing provided from those lineups.
Speaker 1: With Nazrid at center shooting fifty from the field from
Speaker 1: three and seventy from the line. We're not gonna do
Speaker 1: a deep dive into and today. I'm gonna save that
Speaker 1: for some other time, but I did want to give
Speaker 1: him a quick shout out. Looking to get more out
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Speaker 1: sports betting partner of the NFL. So the Warriors an
Speaker 1: impressive come from behind win against the Jazz last night
Speaker 1: for their third straight win, UH, finishing up at one
Speaker 1: twelve one oh seven at home against Utah. Um. What
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do because there's a couple of specific UH
Speaker 1: things that I want to talk about it with specific players,
Speaker 1: But I think the easiest way for me to do
Speaker 1: that is to go through the comeback on a play
Speaker 1: by play type of basis, kind of dive into each
Speaker 1: guy as we go along. So we're gonna zoom in
Speaker 1: on the Warriors trailing one oh one to nine seven
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. So Jonathan com agaends up making
Speaker 1: a great rotation on Jared Vanderbilt at the rim and
Speaker 1: forces to stop the Warriors run out and UH Anthony
Speaker 1: Lamb leads the break, drops it off to tie Jerome.
Speaker 1: He makes a couple of shot fakes and makes a layup,
Speaker 1: and then on the other end Lori Markt and Mrs
Speaker 1: the Three, they go to Jonathan Comina on the post
Speaker 1: on the right block and he ends up drawing a
Speaker 1: foul on a post up and making both free throws
Speaker 1: to tie the game at one oh one. So, first
Speaker 1: of all, Jonathan Comina has been a nice little release
Speaker 1: valve over the course of the last few games, particularly
Speaker 1: in the post for a team that's needed shot creation
Speaker 1: obviously with Steph Curry being out UM, which is exciting
Speaker 1: obviously for his individual development, but most importantly, they just
Speaker 1: need options right now as they're trying to float this
Speaker 1: particular stretch. And Uh, Jonathan cominga scored on a post
Speaker 1: up to the tune of two points in each of
Speaker 1: the last three games, so UH, and I don't think
Speaker 1: he had done a scored out of the post at
Speaker 1: all in the previous five or six games overall in
Speaker 1: the season. UM, with his recent success, he's elevated himself
Speaker 1: to thirty one points on thirty four post ups total,
Speaker 1: which is zero point nine one points per possession, which
Speaker 1: really is not mad for a player his age, especially
Speaker 1: since you have to factor in that that's been much
Speaker 1: better as of late. Um. So it was one o one,
Speaker 1: one on one and Jordan Clarkson runs a pick and
Speaker 1: roll with Jared Vanderbilt and Kevin Luney comes up. Come on,
Speaker 1: Luny comes up to the level of the screen, so
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt ends up getting behind him on the roll
Speaker 1: to the basket and tie. Jerome is in the week
Speaker 1: side corner, and because Luney is up at the level
Speaker 1: of the screen, Jared Vanderbilt is rolling behind the looney
Speaker 1: to the rim. And what Jerome does is he fakes
Speaker 1: like he's going to tag the roller and then comes
Speaker 1: out back to the shooter, and it completely fools D'Angelo Russell.
Speaker 1: He throws the skip pass to the corner and Jerome
Speaker 1: just picks it off, takes it down the length of
Speaker 1: the floor and shoots a transition pull up three sticks
Speaker 1: it to put them up one oh four to one
Speaker 1: oh one. I thought it was the play of the
Speaker 1: game last night. That kind of changed the momentum. Obviously,
Speaker 1: it was a tie game at that point, but that
Speaker 1: was the play that really you can tell the crowd
Speaker 1: is in it at that point, and you could tell
Speaker 1: that the team really believed they could win in at
Speaker 1: that point. Um. After that really nice game against the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies the other night, ty Jerome followed that up last night.
Speaker 1: Was seventeen points on fifty percent shooting and he grabs
Speaker 1: seven rebounds. Um, he's playing some good ball again. They
Speaker 1: just needed some ball handling and ty Jerome stepped up.
Speaker 1: He's plus twenty seven in his minutes during this three
Speaker 1: game winning streaks. So it's one O four, one oh one.
Speaker 1: Lori markt and misses a wide open corner three. Uh.
Speaker 1: The Warriors go down and Dante DiVincenzo runs pick and
Speaker 1: roll with Kevan Luney Kelly Oh because Kelly Olynnic is
Speaker 1: guarding uh, Kevon Looney and he's in drops so he's
Speaker 1: way back. Lori Marken in his guarding Dante DiVincenzo on
Speaker 1: the ball and he goes under the screen. Dante de
Speaker 1: Vincenzo just dribbles over the top of the screen and
Speaker 1: just sticks a pull up three. He's had three seventeen
Speaker 1: plus point games since the Steph Curry injury. Again, like
Speaker 1: I said, before we tied Jerome, they needed somebody to
Speaker 1: step up on offense, and those two guys in particular,
Speaker 1: Dante and Ty have done some really nice work during
Speaker 1: this uh stretch without staff. So it's one of seven
Speaker 1: to one oh one at that point, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: fast forward a few possessions. Now it's one oh seven
Speaker 1: to one oh three with two and a half minutes left.
Speaker 1: So Mike Conley runs a staggered pick and roll with
Speaker 1: a guard at the front and then a big at
Speaker 1: the end, and uh, Jordan Pool and Dante DiVincenzo switched
Speaker 1: the first screen, but right as he's about to go
Speaker 1: off the second screen, Mike condly rejects it and just
Speaker 1: completely dust everybody. Now he's heading downhill. So he's going
Speaker 1: downhill with uh Jared Vanderbilt coming out of the dunker
Speaker 1: spot two on one with only Draymond Green there, and
Speaker 1: Draymond Green steps up, forces Mike Conley to throw the
Speaker 1: drop off pass. Then Draymond turns and just on a
Speaker 1: drop step, rises up and blocks Jared Vanderbilt at the rim.
Speaker 1: Then they go down the other end and the Warriors
Speaker 1: missed a couple of shots at the rim. They missed
Speaker 1: a couple offensive rebound putbacks. I think uh, Jordan Pool
Speaker 1: missed like a floater, and then Draymond missed to put back,
Speaker 1: and then Jonathan Comingo miss to put back. Um then
Speaker 1: uh the uh Lori Marketing and Kelly Olynnok run a
Speaker 1: pick and roll on the other end of the floor
Speaker 1: and Cominga and tie Jerome switch Rome switches out onto
Speaker 1: market and Marketing just quick spins like a really nasty
Speaker 1: spin move to get downhill again. Dust everybody, and he's
Speaker 1: just going right down towards the rim. All there is
Speaker 1: is Draymond Green and Jared Vanderbilt in the dunker spot,
Speaker 1: except for this time. Lori Marketing is scared to throw
Speaker 1: the drop off past because he just saw Draymond he
Speaker 1: raced that shot at the rim, so instead he tries
Speaker 1: to score over Draymond. Draymond contests it, beautifully, forces him
Speaker 1: to double pump, and he misses the layout again. It
Speaker 1: was one oh seven to one oh three. Those two
Speaker 1: on one downhill pick and roll possessions are a bucket
Speaker 1: for every single other defensive player in the league except
Speaker 1: for maybe three or four. It's like, it's like Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, Johanna Antenna Coompo, and Draymond Green. That would
Speaker 1: have tied the game those two possessions, but Draymond just
Speaker 1: erased those possessions um with just ridiculous defensive plays around
Speaker 1: the rim. A couple of possessions later, Jordan Clarkson hits
Speaker 1: a super tough step back three, so it's one or
Speaker 1: seven to one oh six. Then Jordan Pool gets into
Speaker 1: the mix with a nasty crossover driving layup on Mike
Speaker 1: Conley to put them up one o nine, one oh six.
Speaker 1: He's averaging twenty eight points since Steph went down. He
Speaker 1: hasn't been super efficient, but he's been getting to the
Speaker 1: line a lot. He's attempting eight free throws a game
Speaker 1: during that span. Again, I'm not a huge fan of
Speaker 1: of I'm not I'm not like guys that can draw fouls. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I complain about that a lot on this show. I
Speaker 1: do think there's a difference between grifting and getting players
Speaker 1: out of position to draw fouls, and I don't get
Speaker 1: the vibe from Jordan Pool that he's grifting, So let's
Speaker 1: just call them eight honorable free throw attempts per game.
Speaker 1: But most importantly with with free throw attempts, it allows
Speaker 1: you to set your defense because on those possessions you're
Speaker 1: resting everyone's back. It's just you're much more likely to
Speaker 1: get a stop in that specific static situation. So even
Speaker 1: though Jordan Pool hasn't been super efficient, I think when
Speaker 1: you factor in the free throw attempts, it actually kind
Speaker 1: of evens out to some pretty productive twenty eight point
Speaker 1: per game scoring from Jordan Pool. So Mike commonly goes
Speaker 1: down and he misses a floater, and Kelly Olynnok gets
Speaker 1: an offensive rebound, rises up to take a hook shot,
Speaker 1: and Draymond Green, off of a straight vert with no momentum,
Speaker 1: rises up and blocks Kelly olynox hook shot. The Warriors
Speaker 1: allowed just six points over the last seven and a
Speaker 1: half minutes of the fourth quarter. And all I can
Speaker 1: say here is, do not take Draymond Green for granted.
Speaker 1: And I'm not sure why he's so polarizing even among
Speaker 1: Warriors fans. Um. I think a lot of people really
Speaker 1: struggle with his box score numbers. If they you know,
Speaker 1: it's just it's surface level type of stuff, like he
Speaker 1: was only two for seven from the field from from
Speaker 1: U two for seven from the field last night. I
Speaker 1: can get why that's discouraging in some In some ways,
Speaker 1: I actually think Draymond Green is a good offensive player
Speaker 1: if you factor in the fact that he's one of
Speaker 1: the better short role passers in the league. So when
Speaker 1: Steph is drawing traps or when Jordan Pool is drawing traps,
Speaker 1: he's so good at making the right reads, barreling down
Speaker 1: the barreling down the lane. He's also just a great
Speaker 1: passer in general. With a live dribble in the open floor,
Speaker 1: so the Warriors get a lot of good stuff and
Speaker 1: fast break because Draymond can rise up and grab a
Speaker 1: rebound and start to break by himself to find open shooters,
Speaker 1: and then most of his spacing concerns by his inability
Speaker 1: to shoot her. He's been knocking down some shots lately,
Speaker 1: but most of his spacing concerns are mitigated by him
Speaker 1: just quickly going into dribble handoffs, like we've talked about
Speaker 1: so much on the show that the Warriors do with
Speaker 1: Looney and Draymond to get open shots. So you know,
Speaker 1: like I actually think Draymond is pretty good offensively, but regardless,
Speaker 1: he's polarizing for some reason. And I think one of
Speaker 1: the big reasons why is I think people don't really
Speaker 1: quite see the defensive value to the extent that it
Speaker 1: really is um And I think that's sad because I
Speaker 1: think he's one of the best defensive players of all time.
Speaker 1: And you know, when we look at this Warriors era,
Speaker 1: like Steph is the ultimate foundational piece that goes without
Speaker 1: saying I think he might be the best offensive player ever.
Speaker 1: Like the guys who are above him all time are
Speaker 1: all monsters on the defensive end, but he might be
Speaker 1: the best offensive player ever. He makes everything work on
Speaker 1: that end of the floor. Steph Curry is the ultimate
Speaker 1: foundational piece of this dynasty. But what is the second
Speaker 1: biggest foundational piece of this dynasty. I think it's Draymond
Speaker 1: Green and what he can do on the defensive end
Speaker 1: of the floor. He is their defensive ceiling, his ability
Speaker 1: to protect the rim. What he does is a captain
Speaker 1: of the defense in terms of communicating and organizing guys.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously he's loud, he's talking through coverages, can
Speaker 1: snuff out plays before you know, he can see plays
Speaker 1: before they're happening, that kind of thing. And then also
Speaker 1: what he can do switching onto the perimeter to guard
Speaker 1: wings and guards like what he did did to Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown in the finals last year. All of that makes him,
Speaker 1: you know, especially with him being only six ft six,
Speaker 1: he's kind of one of the great anomalies in NBA history.
Speaker 1: But what he does on the defensive end of the
Speaker 1: floor is the second most important foundational piece of this
Speaker 1: entire dynasty. You know, it doesn't take away from steps greatness.
Speaker 1: No one wins championships by themselves, but make no mistake,
Speaker 1: there is no Warriors dynasty without Draymond Green. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to I like, I thought he was so incredible
Speaker 1: defensively down the stretch that game. Um, they probably lose
Speaker 1: that game if anybody other than Draymond Green is out
Speaker 1: there defensively in that fourth quarter. UM. But this three
Speaker 1: game win streak means the Warriors in now four and
Speaker 1: three since the staph injury, so they're above five. Their
Speaker 1: upcoming schedule Portland's at home, Atlanta at home, Detroit at home,
Speaker 1: Orlando at home, the Phoenix Suns without Devin Booker at home.
Speaker 1: Those are all winnable games like four and one is
Speaker 1: on the table for that stretch, and then they go
Speaker 1: on the road, but it's on the road for San Antonio, Chicago,
Speaker 1: and Washington. Those are all winnable games. Now. Then things
Speaker 1: get really tough and they go to do a pretty
Speaker 1: pretty crazy stretch of their schedule, but that doesn't start
Speaker 1: until January nineteen, and Steph Curry should be back at
Speaker 1: that point because he did say he's gonna start getting
Speaker 1: back onto the court probably January one, which is what Sunday,
Speaker 1: So like he is gonna maybe take a week or
Speaker 1: two to get his conditioning, but he should be back
Speaker 1: out on the floor at that point. So all things considered,
Speaker 1: this really couldn't have gone much better for the Warriors
Speaker 1: under the circumstances. This stretch without staff is probably gonna
Speaker 1: end several games above five hundred. That's crazy. They're gonna
Speaker 1: gain ground considering the fact that they were below five
Speaker 1: hundred when the injury actually took place on that night
Speaker 1: against Indiana. Um, you know, my theory is, as we
Speaker 1: talked about, like so many of the Warrior's problems this year,
Speaker 1: there's some depth, depth stuff with the bench, but they
Speaker 1: really solved that to a good extent, not completely solved,
Speaker 1: but they remedied that problem to a good extent by
Speaker 1: staggering their starters with their bench better. So, like I
Speaker 1: believe that a good portion of their issues were was
Speaker 1: a lack of urgency and a blessing in disguise with
Speaker 1: the staff injuries, it seems to have triggered that urgency
Speaker 1: because the night and night out commitment to the work
Speaker 1: has been much better, and they're actually playing some pretty
Speaker 1: damn good basketball without staff right now. They are one
Speaker 1: of the most talented teams in the league. Do I
Speaker 1: think there is talent did as Boston? Probably not. Do
Speaker 1: I think there's talented as the Clippers are top to bottom?
Speaker 1: Probably not, But they're right up there, and they just
Speaker 1: weren't playing hard enough, consistently enough, especially on the road
Speaker 1: for the first chunk of this season. But there is
Speaker 1: a lot of talent there and you're seeing that with
Speaker 1: them winning some games without staff. Now, this show is
Speaker 1: gonna be a little bit different than most of the
Speaker 1: stuff that we've done over the course of this season.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be entirely focused around a hypothetical trade. So no,
Speaker 1: that sounds crazy, but it gives us a chance to
Speaker 1: talk about two teams that are kind of struggling right now,
Speaker 1: and I find this particular trade very interesting. So last
Speaker 1: night I was just talking with the buddy of my name, Sam,
Speaker 1: Sam covers the Warriors with Light Years. Those of you
Speaker 1: guys who listen to that show, Him and Andy do
Speaker 1: an amazing job covering covering that team. I love their
Speaker 1: engagement with the fans. It's a very engaging show, and
Speaker 1: they're all also really smart basketball minds as well. And
Speaker 1: I was bouncing my big trade idea off of Sam,
Speaker 1: that idea being Darius Garland for o Ganna Nobi, which
Speaker 1: I think is makes so much sense on so many
Speaker 1: different levels for both of those teams, and he came
Speaker 1: back at me with a trade involving the Los Angeles
Speaker 1: Lakers and the Phoenix Suns that I thought about a
Speaker 1: lot this morning, and I think it makes a ton
Speaker 1: of sense. So what we're gonna do today is we're
Speaker 1: gonna dive into that trade from a bunch of different angles.
Speaker 1: And I'm really curious to hear what you guys think.
Speaker 1: If you think it's insane, tell me in the comments
Speaker 1: if you dislike it for one reason or another, If
Speaker 1: you tweak it in any way, put that in the
Speaker 1: comments as well, and I'll check that out later tonight.
Speaker 1: You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to the Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any
Speaker 1: more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore
Speaker 1: Jason lt so you guys don't miss any show announcements. Then, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one
Speaker 1: of these shows and you can't get back over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish. Remember, you can find them wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. So foundationally, the reason
Speaker 1: why this trade makes sense is both of these teams,
Speaker 1: the Sons and the Lakers, are in crisis mode. The
Speaker 1: Phoenix Suns were the runaway best team in the NBA
Speaker 1: and in the NBA last year. They won sixty four
Speaker 1: games that they started hot. This year, they started fifteen
Speaker 1: and six, which was the third best record in basketball
Speaker 1: when the calendar flipped over to December. But then December
Speaker 1: happened and they've been five and ten during this month,
Speaker 1: which is the fifth worst record in the league. Their
Speaker 1: defense has completely fallen apart. They have the seven best
Speaker 1: defensive rating in the league in December and they have
Speaker 1: slipped all the way down to fifth in the West,
Speaker 1: and now they're going to be without Devin Booker, who's
Speaker 1: their best player, for at least a month. But more importantly,
Speaker 1: and this is the big reason why I view the
Speaker 1: Sons is in crisis, because when you look at the standings,
Speaker 1: they're not that far back. But more importantly, we've seen
Speaker 1: the ceiling of this team. We know fundamentally that when
Speaker 1: you have Booker and Paul, with DeAndre and and the
Speaker 1: role players that they have, even with all the talent
Speaker 1: they have down the roster at the very highest levels,
Speaker 1: when they play against the best players in the world,
Speaker 1: there seems to be a ceiling to what they can do.
Speaker 1: Booker and Paul have not been able to rise to
Speaker 1: that level. So I think they are in full crisis mode,
Speaker 1: and I think that they probably be more willing to
Speaker 1: break things apart than people realize. Then we have the
Speaker 1: Lakers who lost to Miami last night. They're now fourteen
Speaker 1: and twenty one. They're still playing solid basketball with Lebron
Speaker 1: on the floor, but they can't do a damn thing
Speaker 1: on either end of the floor when he's off the floor.
Speaker 1: After the game, Lebron said quote, I am a winner,
Speaker 1: and I want to win and give myself a chance
Speaker 1: to win and still compete for a championship playing basketball
Speaker 1: at this level, just to be playing basketball is not
Speaker 1: in my d N. A, it's not in my DNA anymore.
Speaker 1: End quote. So Lebron now starting to come basically publicly
Speaker 1: come out and imply that he's not happy with where
Speaker 1: the rosters at. And now they're in this weird predicament
Speaker 1: where they're so far down in the standings that things
Speaker 1: look kind of bleak, even with Anthony Davis returning in
Speaker 1: a few weeks. We had a report a couple of
Speaker 1: days ago that Anthony Davis is not feeling any pain
Speaker 1: in his foot, and seven to ten days from now
Speaker 1: they're going to reevaluate him and probably ramp him back up. Um.
Speaker 1: But this idea that you know, the Warriors are gonna
Speaker 1: probably not do anything, Uh, that's something that we kind
Speaker 1: of saw coming coming into the season. They set the
Speaker 1: team up for failure. Then they'd failed, then they wouldn't
Speaker 1: do anything. We're not gonna hash that out again. We've
Speaker 1: hashed that a million times on this show. But Sam
Speaker 1: proposed a trade between the Sons and the Lakers that
Speaker 1: I think makes an alarming amount of sense for both teams.
Speaker 1: So what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: guys the framework of the trade. Then I'm gonna look
Speaker 1: at it from the Lakers perspective, and then I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look at it from the Sun's perspective. So the framework
Speaker 1: of this trade would be Anthony Davis to the Sons
Speaker 1: and Jay Crowder DeAndre Ayton in three first round picks
Speaker 1: to the Lakers. So now there's a couple of there's
Speaker 1: a couple of caveats first, so the trade cannot be
Speaker 1: executed till January per the CBA rules surrounding the new
Speaker 1: deal that Eton signed, and DeAndre Ayton would have veto
Speaker 1: power over any trade for the rest of this season. Um.
Speaker 1: Although I doubt that DeAndre Ayton would veto a Lakers trade. Um,
Speaker 1: why we'll let's just talk about what his role would
Speaker 1: look like with the Lakers. Obviously it's great to go
Speaker 1: to l A. I also think he'd just be used
Speaker 1: a lot more there. Um. So, first of all, with
Speaker 1: the Lakers, I'm a huge believer in the Lebron and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis corp. When they're healthy, as you guys know,
Speaker 1: when Anthony Davis is actually good the way he was
Speaker 1: over the course of this season and not kind of
Speaker 1: disengaged in out of shape the way the way he
Speaker 1: was the previous two seasons. When Anthony Davis is playing
Speaker 1: like that and Lebron James is playing the way he's
Speaker 1: been playing, you saw what happened when they went into
Speaker 1: Milwaukee and beat the Bucks. They still have a ceiling
Speaker 1: as high as anybody else in the league. But this
Speaker 1: is the third consecutive season that Anthony Davis has suffered
Speaker 1: a significant injury causing him to miss significant time. And
Speaker 1: I also think he's had a huge workload in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles because of the roster limitations that has exacerbated that
Speaker 1: particular issue. Then we look at DeAndre Ayton. Deandreyton is
Speaker 1: a super talented twenty four year old player that immediately
Speaker 1: gives you a legit center to build your defensive foundation on. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's had some issues with missing games himself, but not
Speaker 1: nearly to the extent that Anthony Davis has had. And
Speaker 1: he's younger. He's twenty four years old, so it's far
Speaker 1: more likely that he'll be available in the coming years
Speaker 1: than Anthony Davis has been uh and most importantly, and
Speaker 1: this is a big part of it, you know, I
Speaker 1: think I think DeAndre is capable of a lot more
Speaker 1: offensive creation than what he's shown in Phoenix. They're a
Speaker 1: pick and roll offense with two outstanding pick and roll
Speaker 1: ball handlers. The vast majority of their offensive organization is
Speaker 1: geared towards those guards and not towards getting DeAndre in touches.
Speaker 1: He does get touches, but they're typically as a rollman
Speaker 1: or as a popman, not usually in the post. When
Speaker 1: he does get the ball in the post, he's been good.
Speaker 1: He scored one point zero two points per possession on
Speaker 1: post ups, which is really solid. That sixteenth in the
Speaker 1: league among players who have attempted at least fifty shots
Speaker 1: on post ups. He's also shooting forty six on jumpers
Speaker 1: this year, including from three, albeit on low volume. I
Speaker 1: think when DeAndre gets into his late twenties, he's gonna
Speaker 1: be a very reliable jump shooter on volume. He's already
Speaker 1: a pretty dependable jump shooter right now on lower volume.
Speaker 1: He's not a perfect player, like he can take some
Speaker 1: possessions off. We know he can be pouty. He can
Speaker 1: have bad defensive games. Um, but mean I also want
Speaker 1: to cut him some slack because clearly he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to be in Phoenix. He went out and signed with
Speaker 1: another team, and Phoenix made him come back with it
Speaker 1: with obviously with an arrangement that's in the c b
Speaker 1: A to protect your draft right, So I don't have
Speaker 1: any problem with it. But make no mistake, the Sons
Speaker 1: don't really want him and he doesn't really want to
Speaker 1: be there, so I think that probably factors into his
Speaker 1: behavior a little bit. That said, I do believe it's
Speaker 1: a little bit in his personality where he can take
Speaker 1: some possessions and games off and have a bad attitude
Speaker 1: from time to time. But to zoom out, Deandreton is
Speaker 1: very very good and he probably will get much better.
Speaker 1: That's just a fact. At this point, what would the
Speaker 1: Lakers do with DeAndre and if they got him in
Speaker 1: that kind of trade, So there's basically two directions you
Speaker 1: can go from there. You can because we gotta look
Speaker 1: at it like this. You're also getting Jay Crowder in
Speaker 1: that deal, who's not my favorite wing in the world.
Speaker 1: But with how I say thin, the Lakers do not
Speaker 1: have wings. They just they just don't, so even though
Speaker 1: crowd is not my favorite wing in the world, he
Speaker 1: would immediately feel a very specific roster and need and
Speaker 1: make them a lot better in that specific area their roster.
Speaker 1: And with the influx of three first round picks, you
Speaker 1: would now have five tradeable first round picks within this season.
Speaker 1: So from there you'd have two directions. You could go
Speaker 1: as the Lakers. You could win now with Lebron. You
Speaker 1: have a solid front court rotation there with Lebron, Deandreton,
Speaker 1: Jay Crowder, and Thomas Bryant. You flip Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley,
Speaker 1: Kendrick Nunn and all of those draft picks for as
Speaker 1: much talent as you possibly can find. I'd call the
Speaker 1: Wizards and try to throw russ and at A in three,
Speaker 1: four or five picks to try to get Bradley Beal.
Speaker 1: You could call the Pistons and try to get Boy
Speaker 1: and Bogdanovitch. You could call the Jazz and try to
Speaker 1: get some real shooting that they don't really have on
Speaker 1: the roster. You could call Charlotte and try to get
Speaker 1: some of the younger athletic wings. They have over sixty
Speaker 1: million in tradeable salary that doesn't really touch their core
Speaker 1: players and five draft picks. There's a lot you can
Speaker 1: do there and still have Austin Reeves, Lawn You Walker,
Speaker 1: Dennis Shrewder, Lebron, J DeAndre and J Crowder. It's still
Speaker 1: have like a little foundation to pair with whatever you
Speaker 1: can bring back in the trade market. And the key
Speaker 1: there is Lebron has been a top five player in
Speaker 1: the world over the last five weeks. In his last
Speaker 1: seventeen games, he's averaging thirty points, eight rebounds, and six
Speaker 1: assists on six true shooting, which is outrageous box score production.
Speaker 1: And the Lakers are outscoring teams by five points per
Speaker 1: one possessions over that span, when Lebron is on the
Speaker 1: floor with arguably the worst supporting cast in the league.
Speaker 1: So as ridiculous as it might sound, you know, when
Speaker 1: we're talking about retooling around a guy who's thirty eight
Speaker 1: years old, it's a legitimate option that's on the table.
Speaker 1: But the second option there is full rebuild. If you
Speaker 1: do nothing, or if you trade Anthony Davis this season
Speaker 1: and you don't invest in him after that, Lebron will
Speaker 1: probably request a trade in this offseason. Now that's a
Speaker 1: whole separate conversation, because that'll be a really ugly moment
Speaker 1: in Lakers history for Lebron's first raid request to be
Speaker 1: before his twenty feet season. And there's a case to
Speaker 1: be made that that big of a fiasco would make
Speaker 1: it very difficult for the Lakers to bring in stars
Speaker 1: in the future because as long as Rob Polink is
Speaker 1: at the Helm, they won't get anybody. But even if
Speaker 1: they fired Rob Polink and brought somebody else in, Genie
Speaker 1: Buss is now the poorest owner in the NBA. And
Speaker 1: as we know, when you want to compete at the
Speaker 1: highest levels on a year by year basis, you have
Speaker 1: to be willing to dip into the tax and Genie
Speaker 1: Bustlett Alex Cruso go a player that would be monumentally
Speaker 1: helpful to them for ten million a year, obviously with
Speaker 1: a luxury at tax of thirty but Genie Buss can't
Speaker 1: foot that bill. She's the poorest owner in the NBA,
Speaker 1: So that you know, this whole thing going up in
Speaker 1: flames would be a disaster for Genie Buss, which is
Speaker 1: precisely why it's so important for her to protect competency
Speaker 1: during this phase. But with how if they did decide
Speaker 1: to go the whole rebuild route. Even at Lebron's age,
Speaker 1: he still has some kind of value and he would
Speaker 1: bring back some kind of asset return. How much we
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, Lebron being this good at his
Speaker 1: age is so unprecedented that we don't really have anything
Speaker 1: to fall back on there. I don't really have any
Speaker 1: idea what he would fetch. I mean, I would imagine
Speaker 1: on the low end of the spectrum, you're gonna get
Speaker 1: to a combination of two young players and picks, whether
Speaker 1: that's two young players or two first or one player
Speaker 1: one first. I would think that would be the low end.
Speaker 1: Potentially more if Lebron finishes the year healthy. But let's
Speaker 1: just say for the sake of argument, that it's two
Speaker 1: first round picks. Okay, that puts you because at that
Speaker 1: point they also get another draft pick going in the
Speaker 1: next season that's tradeable. So going in the next season,
Speaker 1: they would then have eight I can't get my fingers right,
Speaker 1: eight tradeable first round draft picks, crowders and expiring, so
Speaker 1: he'd be off the books. All you'd have on the
Speaker 1: cap sheet would be DeAndre Ayton, who's a max contract
Speaker 1: but an affordable and tradeable max contract. He only makes
Speaker 1: thirty two the next year, thirty four the following thirty
Speaker 1: six the year after that, Damien Jones has a player
Speaker 1: option for two point six million in max. Christie is
Speaker 1: on the books for one point seven million, which is
Speaker 1: very little. So if you flip Lebron after the season,
Speaker 1: you've got a ton of draft picks to work with
Speaker 1: and an open cap sheet. Or there's another direction you
Speaker 1: can go, because when when the Lebron if they trade Lebron,
Speaker 1: there's two directions they can go. You can target expiring
Speaker 1: contracts for cap flexibility, in which case you're probably gonna
Speaker 1: get less in the way of draft draft compensation. Like
Speaker 1: maybe it's expiring contracts, but you only get one first
Speaker 1: round pick, you know, or one first round pick in
Speaker 1: a second round pick, right. But the other route you
Speaker 1: can go as you take on salary with draft picks
Speaker 1: and you use that salary partnered with those eight draft
Speaker 1: picks to go trade for a star. Like we talked
Speaker 1: about earlier, the incompetency that the Lakers have demonstrated to
Speaker 1: the league will make it hard for them to get stars.
Speaker 1: So having draft capital that you can pair up with
Speaker 1: salary is actually a good thing for them, especially in
Speaker 1: the modern NBA where that's turned out kind of one
Speaker 1: of the better ways to get stars in the first place. So,
Speaker 1: no matter what, you have like some real flexibility there
Speaker 1: with lots of draft picks and either cap space or
Speaker 1: salary filler. That leaves two interesting options for the Lakers.
Speaker 1: You can win now with Ayton, or you can go
Speaker 1: the full rebuild route. Um looking over at the Sun's
Speaker 1: Crowder isn't with the team right now, so there's no
Speaker 1: real loss there. Phoenix clearly doesn't like Atan. Like we
Speaker 1: talked about earlier, it's mutual and happiness and Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: when healthy this year, was one of the five best
Speaker 1: players in basketball. He's been the best defensive player in
Speaker 1: the league this year when he was available. He rediscovered
Speaker 1: his jump shot during this recent run, which was making
Speaker 1: him a terrifying ISO and post up threat. And in
Speaker 1: Phoenix's pick and roll attack, which is basically the line
Speaker 1: share of where they were in their offense, he'd be
Speaker 1: a much better version of Aten. He's a better vertical spacer,
Speaker 1: he's a better passer out of the short role. He's
Speaker 1: got better hands. Deandreton also has great hands, but Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis's ability to catch and finish and pick and rolls insane,
Speaker 1: and he's better at beating switches. Sixteen players in the
Speaker 1: league this year have logged at least seventy five rollman possessions,
Speaker 1: and a d is second in the league on a
Speaker 1: points per possession basis at one point three seven Trivia
Speaker 1: Who's first? Christian would um, that's what the Lakers team too.
Speaker 1: That's so devoid of talent that Anthony Davis is typically
Speaker 1: catching in traffic surrounded by two or three bodies at
Speaker 1: a time. So I think he significantly raises phoenix Is
Speaker 1: ceiling on both ends of the floor. But most importantly,
Speaker 1: he gives Phoenix a player that can go toe to
Speaker 1: toe with the best players in the world. They ran
Speaker 1: into Janice, and Janice was too much for them. They
Speaker 1: ran into Luca and Luco is too much for them.
Speaker 1: This year, it'll be someone else. Do you want to
Speaker 1: have Anthony Davis on your team so that you can
Speaker 1: look at eye with that guy and feel like you
Speaker 1: like your chances or do you to have a repeat
Speaker 1: of the same history that we've had over the last
Speaker 1: couple of seasons. I've seen Anthony Davis give Nicola Yokis
Speaker 1: fits and out play him in a playoff series. I've
Speaker 1: seen Anthony Davis give Joel and Bead fits. I've seen
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis give Jana Sanntenna Kumpo fits. He's like like
Speaker 1: he's he's that ultimate ceiling raising peace that the Son's need.
Speaker 1: And because of his injury history, he's gettable in a
Speaker 1: way that Kevin Durant is not. And and that's what
Speaker 1: I think makes them so interesting. I've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of Sons fans saying like, oh, we should go get
Speaker 1: Kyle Kuzma, and I really like Kyle Kuzma, and I
Speaker 1: think that he would really help a team with legitimate
Speaker 1: title aspirations. But specifically for the Sons, I don't think
Speaker 1: it raises their ceiling enough because the stars are still
Speaker 1: the issue. But most importantly, if you make that trade,
Speaker 1: it kind of resets the culture. Like ever since that
Speaker 1: loss to Luca, the Sons have had a weird energy
Speaker 1: around them um and a lot of that I think
Speaker 1: stems from the negativity of the eight in relations and ship.
Speaker 1: So not only does it make you much better within
Speaker 1: this season because you alleviate some of that negativity, but
Speaker 1: then you kind of have an interesting cord to move
Speaker 1: forward with between Devin Booker and Cam Johnson, who I
Speaker 1: really like, and Anthony Davis. That's a really interesting core
Speaker 1: that you can build even new teams around in the future.
Speaker 1: So to me, I think it makes a lot of
Speaker 1: sense for both teams. Gives the Lakers some options to
Speaker 1: potentially contend in the immediate future and to contend in
Speaker 1: the future, and I think it gives the Sons a
Speaker 1: real championship ceiling that they've lacked over the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. So I think it makes sense. Um. Obviously,
Speaker 1: with any of these trades, there's a great deal of
Speaker 1: unlikeliness or unlikelihood just because of the fact that so
Speaker 1: many things have to break right for a trade um
Speaker 1: to get consummated. But I'm really interested to hear what
Speaker 1: you guys think. So if you guys think it's stupid,
Speaker 1: tell me. If you don't like it for one team
Speaker 1: more than the other, tell me, if you would tweak
Speaker 1: it in any way, tell me. But I'm genuinely curious
Speaker 1: what you guys think. And I also want to hear
Speaker 1: some other a D trade ideas because I do think
Speaker 1: that's a direction the Lakers could end up going before
Speaker 1: the deadline. Al Right, guys, that is all I have
Speaker 1: for today. We're going to take the rest of the
Speaker 1: weekend off, and then we'll be back Monday to talk
Speaker 1: about the m v P showdown between Nicola Yokich and
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys support,
Speaker 1: and I'll see you guys on Monday. The Volume