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Speaker 1: to Night here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. If
Speaker 1: all of you guys are having an incredible week, got
Speaker 1: a fun show for you guys today We're breaking down
Speaker 1: heat nuggets from last night NBA Finals rematch. Then we
Speaker 1: have a mail bag at the end of the show.
Speaker 1: You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe
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Speaker 1: last but not least, keep dropping mail bag questions in
Speaker 1: the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout
Speaker 1: the next few weeks. All right, let's talk some basketball.
Speaker 1: So this, ironically, as an NBA Finals rematch, kind of
Speaker 1: took on a similar feel to what the beginning of
Speaker 1: Game one of last year's NBA Finals did, which was
Speaker 1: a heavy dose of Aaron Gordon dominating the game out
Speaker 1: of the post. As a matter of fact, each of
Speaker 1: the first seven points that Denver scored basically came from
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon as a post threat. He scored the first
Speaker 1: four himself, and then there was an off ball screening
Speaker 1: action on the right side of the floor where they
Speaker 1: were trying to get a smaller player switched on to
Speaker 1: Aaron Gordon. They botched the coverage, and that's actually how
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray broke open for that three on the right wing.
Speaker 1: It was all as part of a reaction to the
Speaker 1: threat of Aaron Gordon out of the post. So seven
Speaker 1: to zero lead early from that very similar. If you
Speaker 1: guys remember to the beginning of Game one of last
Speaker 1: year's NBA Finals, I thought Contavious call Well Pope was
Speaker 1: also incredible in that early run. Nuggets completely dominated the
Speaker 1: first quarter of this game, and KCP is just so
Speaker 1: good at running his lane getting to those wing in
Speaker 1: corner threes in transition that pump fake ripped through won
Speaker 1: dribble pull up going to his right that he's so
Speaker 1: good at. As a team, the Nuggets converted spot up
Speaker 1: possessions in this game at one point three to three
Speaker 1: points per possession, which is just completely outrageous. They also
Speaker 1: bullied them on the glass. There was this funny possession
Speaker 1: in the first half where Michael Porter Junior and Aaron
Speaker 1: Gordon were under the rim, just completely surrounded by Miami
Speaker 1: Heat players and they were just playing volleyball on the
Speaker 1: glass until Michael Porter Junior ended up putting it in.
Speaker 1: Miami fought back because they're just a gigantic pain in
Speaker 1: the ass they're specifically probably the best team in the
Speaker 1: league at preventing and fighting Jokic from getting the ball
Speaker 1: at his usual spots. Bam is super good at fronting
Speaker 1: the post. He's just big and strong enough while at
Speaker 1: the same time like agile enough to get around the
Speaker 1: front of jokicch and then he squats down low. And
Speaker 1: then what they'll do is they'll run what's called what
Speaker 1: I call a bracket coverage, basically where you front the
Speaker 1: post and then you offer backside help. So imagine a
Speaker 1: situation where a player fronts the post. You've now put
Speaker 1: yourself in a predicament where if the post entry comes
Speaker 1: through clean, he's at the rim already for a layup right,
Speaker 1: but it's a somewhat difficult pass to kind of float
Speaker 1: it over the top to where it's high enough to
Speaker 1: get over so that Bam can't reach up and deflect it,
Speaker 1: but low enough that Jokic can grab it. And then
Speaker 1: when you bracket, meaning and when you bring another defender
Speaker 1: around the backside, it actually shrinks that window even tighter,
Speaker 1: because now if you throw the pass too far, you
Speaker 1: can run into an issue where that pass gets deflected.
Speaker 1: This was an issue in the Lakers Clippers game last
Speaker 1: night where the Miami Heat or excuse me, the Clippers
Speaker 1: were switching a lot of the ball screen actions that
Speaker 1: the Lakers were running and putting smaller players onto Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: But he would slip down and as he's slipping, the
Speaker 1: defender that's guarding him is actually on his top side,
Speaker 1: and they were offering backside help from the corners because
Speaker 1: the Lakers kept playing with occupied corners. And so, yeah,
Speaker 1: that like a passing angle's there, but like we're talking
Speaker 1: a really really tight passing angle. And so that's an
Speaker 1: easy way, or I shouldn't say it's an easy way.
Speaker 1: It's a difficult way. It takes an enormous amount of
Speaker 1: hard work, which is why so many teams don't do it.
Speaker 1: But if you do it right, it is a way
Speaker 1: that you can use to fight Jokic out of his
Speaker 1: usual spots and make it tougher for him to catch
Speaker 1: the basketball. There was a play I'd actually resultant in
Speaker 1: a foul where they bracketed it and Jokic made the catch.
Speaker 1: They got the ball to him nice enough high, because
Speaker 1: of course, Jokic is just a preposterously large target that
Speaker 1: you can throw to compared to most post players, right.
Speaker 1: And Aaron Gordon was the guy that they were bracketing
Speaker 1: off of. He flashed to the high post and Duncan
Speaker 1: Robinson and Jaime Hawkes immediately when Aaron Gordon caught it,
Speaker 1: they were on him and swiping down at the basketball.
Speaker 1: This is a big thing that I talk about on
Speaker 1: the show, like when you put yourself in a predicament
Speaker 1: defensively where you put two guys on the ball, the
Speaker 1: best way for you to prevent the open three is
Speaker 1: not actually another rotation. It's disrupting the basketball. If you
Speaker 1: disrupt the basketball, you make it so it's really difficult
Speaker 1: for that pass to even be made, which then makes
Speaker 1: that rotation that much easier. And of course, on that
Speaker 1: specific possession, they ended up committing a foul. But this
Speaker 1: is a I actually clipped this play for you guys
Speaker 1: to see. I wanted you guys to have an example
Speaker 1: so you can kind of visually see what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: Go to my Twitter feed at underscore JSNLT you'll see
Speaker 1: a textbook example of bam fronting the post. I think
Speaker 1: it's Nicole Yovich that's throwing the bracket coverage and then
Speaker 1: as Yokic makes three to Yovic's man there in the
Speaker 1: middle of the floor, which was Aaron Gordon. In comes
Speaker 1: Haimihakes and Duncan Robinson to just quickly trap and they
Speaker 1: end up committing a foul. But that's an example of
Speaker 1: like not just the hard work that BAM's willing to
Speaker 1: do to front the post, but also winshield wiper rotations,
Speaker 1: which I talk about all the time on the show,
Speaker 1: which means a rotation is useless if you don't get
Speaker 1: there in time. And so when one guy's rotating, if
Speaker 1: you rotate in order, meaning like rotate, rotate, rotate, there
Speaker 1: can be a gap there. But if everybody rotates simultaneously,
Speaker 1: you can close those gaps and you can make things
Speaker 1: that much harder. And Miami just did a really good
Speaker 1: job of that, just kind of making Jokic, you know,
Speaker 1: just a little bit frustrated by his particular standards, although
Speaker 1: I thought when push came to shove, when he needed
Speaker 1: to get to his spots, he was good. He was.
Speaker 1: When they got it to two there in the mid
Speaker 1: third quarter, Jokic started to run by, you know, bullying
Speaker 1: Bam to the basket. When they got it close slate.
Speaker 1: He went right to his you know, left shoulder, over
Speaker 1: the left shoulder, right handed hook over Bam and abayo,
Speaker 1: and he got a bucket. So again, like you know,
Speaker 1: efficiencies all relative when Jokic is just gonna be able
Speaker 1: to get a basket at the end of the game
Speaker 1: when it matters. But they actually did make Jokic work hard,
Speaker 1: and obviously the Jamal Murray injury ended up playing a
Speaker 1: significant role as well. He sprained his ankle. Looked like
Speaker 1: landing on air. I never go back and rewatch injuries
Speaker 1: because it's just a personal preference of mine. It always
Speaker 1: freaks me out just because I play basketball too, and
Speaker 1: I don't like to see injuries because it just makes
Speaker 1: me queasy. But it looked like on the live watch
Speaker 1: that he stepped on Aaron Gordon as he was going
Speaker 1: out of bounds. Aaron Gordon was cutting along the baseline
Speaker 1: and it was ball screen action. He threw a pass
Speaker 1: back to nickok at the top the qy. You made
Speaker 1: the jumper. I think it put him up like seven
Speaker 1: or eight points at that point, but then he ended
Speaker 1: up landing on somebody and sprained his ankles. Hopefully he's okay,
Speaker 1: but I mean between the fronting and the bracketing and
Speaker 1: the rotating and then Jamal Murray being out to just
Speaker 1: remove that like other angle of that offensive threat. It
Speaker 1: just allowed Miami to kind of linger around, right, and
Speaker 1: so Miami kept it close until the mid third quarter.
Speaker 1: I think it was sixty five sixty three at that point,
Speaker 1: and then Jokic goes right to work on Bam and
Speaker 1: Iso gets all the way to the basket and scores.
Speaker 1: And then Michael Porter Juniors just was red hot in
Speaker 1: this particular game. We're gonna talk about him in a second,
Speaker 1: but he made a couple of big shots and they
Speaker 1: end up going up by as much as sixteen there
Speaker 1: in the early portion of the fourth quarter, and like
Speaker 1: this is where this is an example of you know,
Speaker 1: I talk a lot about Denver's starting lineup as like
Speaker 1: the perfect fitting group. There's a concept I talk a
Speaker 1: lot about on this show involving diminishing returns, which basically
Speaker 1: involves when you take a player that is k people
Speaker 1: of doing a lot and you put them into a
Speaker 1: smaller role, there can be some diminishing returns. They talked
Speaker 1: about this a lot with like Bradley Beal on the Suns, right, Like, well,
Speaker 1: who would you rather have as a third man in
Speaker 1: a lineup alongside Devin Booker and and and KD would
Speaker 1: you rather have KCP or Bradley Beal? Right, Like, Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal is a better player than KCP, but as a
Speaker 1: tertiary option and a guy that has to primarily focus
Speaker 1: on on ball defense and a lot of like dirty
Speaker 1: work responsibilities, that gap closes, Like I'd probably still have
Speaker 1: rather have Bradley Beal, but that gap is closer, right
Speaker 1: Whereas if I threw them both on the Washington Wizards,
Speaker 1: like and they had to do a lot more on
Speaker 1: the on the ball, like, that gap grows and Bradley
Speaker 1: Beal becomes more valuable, right, Like That's that's kind of
Speaker 1: an example of the diminishing returns that I talk about.
Speaker 1: And so what kind of makes the starting lineup for
Speaker 1: the Nuggets work so well is the fact that specifically
Speaker 1: guys like Aaron Gordon and KCP are focused into a
Speaker 1: role where everything that they're great at is exactly what
Speaker 1: the Nuggets need out of that role. Well, the one
Speaker 1: guy who is like a little overqualified, or I should
Speaker 1: say probably a little bit more than that overqualified for
Speaker 1: his role is Michael Porter Junior. He's the guy that
Speaker 1: primarily operates off the ball offensively as a spot up
Speaker 1: the right, one of the best spot up players in
Speaker 1: the league, and then also does a ton of dirty work.
Speaker 1: Excellent rebounder, excellent health defender. He did a nice job
Speaker 1: reading the back line tonight, just like you know, anytime
Speaker 1: Denvers would throw three on two or two on one,
Speaker 1: that back line responsibility. You're usually guarding two players and
Speaker 1: you're kind of splitting the gap, and he's got the
Speaker 1: length and the instincts to make plays back there. Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior has done an amazing job playing his role
Speaker 1: for the Nuggets. But he's the one guy in that
Speaker 1: lineup other than Jokich, because Jokic can scale up as
Speaker 1: a scorer. But he's the one guy in that lineup
Speaker 1: that can scale up if he needs to, Like if
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray goes out of the lineup and you need
Speaker 1: someone to step up as a scorer, Michael Porter Junior
Speaker 1: is your guy. He can do that. And so I
Speaker 1: thought tonight was a great example of him being able
Speaker 1: to scale up his offense as the team needs him to,
Speaker 1: because that's something that he can do. He's that one
Speaker 1: guy that's actually slotted into a role with the Nuggets
Speaker 1: where he's actually a little better than what they're asking
Speaker 1: him to do. And I thought tonight was a good
Speaker 1: example of that. Also Ragie Jackson, you know, he had
Speaker 1: a bit of a rough night tonight, but he's not
Speaker 1: a terrible option to step into that role temporarily for
Speaker 1: the regular season. That said, hopefully Jamal Murray's not out
Speaker 1: too much longer. They got a tough stretch of games
Speaker 1: here coming up to between the Lakers, Suns, and Celtics,
Speaker 1: and you'd like to have Jamal Murray for those games.
Speaker 1: I know I personally would really like to see Jamal
Speaker 1: healthy for that Boston Celtics game. So hopefully he's not
Speaker 1: out for too much longer. So Miami makes a late
Speaker 1: run in the game, Terry Rozier really started to get
Speaker 1: going in screening actions and they actually got it down
Speaker 1: to four. I thought that was super encouraging on the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat front, because Terry's really struggled so far with
Speaker 1: the Heat and like they desperately need him to do that.
Speaker 1: They need him to do exactly what he did down
Speaker 1: the stretch of that fourth quarter. Just be a guy
Speaker 1: who can be a legitimate half court shot creation option
Speaker 1: to kind of alleviate some of the workload that's on
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler went on anice little run, hit a couple
Speaker 1: of jumpers, kind of snake in the pick and roll,
Speaker 1: gets it down to four, and then they just immediately
Speaker 1: go to Yokic in the post against Bam and he
Speaker 1: gets to his spot and he gets to his over
Speaker 1: his left shoulder for that righty hook and he makes it.
Speaker 1: And that's just the predicament that Denver puts you in. Okay,
Speaker 1: you competed really hard and you kept it close, but
Speaker 1: you know you needed another stop and you couldn't get
Speaker 1: it thanks to what Jokic brings to the table as
Speaker 1: a post up player. By the way, koly Joki is
Speaker 1: shooting sixty one percent by himself as a shooter out
Speaker 1: of the post, So when he actually takes a shot
Speaker 1: out of the post sixty one percent, think about how
Speaker 1: crazy efficient that is. Like you throw the ball to Jokic,
Speaker 1: game on the line, you know, big possession late kind
Speaker 1: of like what we saw. You're as an opposing fan like,
Speaker 1: oh shit, Like there's a two out of three chance.
Speaker 1: This is going in and that's just a really helpless feeling.
Speaker 1: And as crazy as it sounds, they're actually more efficient
Speaker 1: on a points per possession basis when Jokic passes out
Speaker 1: of the post than when he shoots, so I'm not
Speaker 1: really sure what you can do with him. So and
Speaker 1: they got it. You know, there were a couple buckets
Speaker 1: from Miami laate that that got it somewhat closer, but
Speaker 1: they never actually had the ball with the chance to
Speaker 1: side the game, So you know, it was all for
Speaker 1: not on that end of things that I thought that
Speaker 1: hook shot from Yokic effectively iced the game solid win.
Speaker 1: Hopefully Jamal Murray's okay, and again, tough schedule coming up,
Speaker 1: really really bad timing on that front, especially since like
Speaker 1: it looked like Denver was kind of trending up towards
Speaker 1: getting potentially into that one seed conversation. But I mean,
Speaker 1: if they could somehow rip through these games even without
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray, that would be that would be about as
Speaker 1: sound a demonstration of their ceiling as we'd find at
Speaker 1: this point in the regular season. One other things I
Speaker 1: wanted to say on the Miami Heat side of things,
Speaker 1: bam Adebayo is going to have to develop better touch
Speaker 1: around the rim. In this game, he missed six shots
Speaker 1: by my account, that were right around the rim. Short jumpers,
Speaker 1: little pushots, layups, like, it's a different game if he
Speaker 1: makes two or three more of those, as we were
Speaker 1: talking about, as it pertains to the scoreboard, he's shooting
Speaker 1: just forty seven percent on layups this year, just thirty
Speaker 1: eight percent on hook shots. Those of you guys are
Speaker 1: remember in the NBA Finals last year that was a
Speaker 1: significant issue for Miami as they were trying to keep
Speaker 1: that series close. Just every time Bam caught around the rim,
Speaker 1: it just wasn't nearly as much of a sure thing
Speaker 1: as it was for a guy like nikolea Jokic. It's
Speaker 1: been the one thing in his development that's been most concerning,
Speaker 1: because you know, the jumpers, especially further away from the rim,
Speaker 1: are kind of like just gravy. You know, it's great
Speaker 1: when they go in, but that's not what you paid
Speaker 1: Bam at a baio for. And obviously we all know
Speaker 1: he's in the top tier of defensive anchors in the league,
Speaker 1: but that specific weakness, that inability to finish around the
Speaker 1: basket is something that just prevents him from getting into
Speaker 1: the tier of players that he's capable of getting to.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on to our mail bag. We
Speaker 1: got about a dozen questions or so to hit tonight.
Speaker 1: I say tonight because I'm recording this late on Thursday night,
Speaker 1: but this will obviously be up on the feeds on Friday.
Speaker 1: So first question, I was wondering what you think about
Speaker 1: how much playing around players like Steph Curry influences your
Speaker 1: career after the fact. Thinking about Dante DiVincenzo here, He's
Speaker 1: been having an awesome season from three, which I would
Speaker 1: attribute to his own hard work, but I wonder if
Speaker 1: being on the Warriors had any influence over what he
Speaker 1: had decided to work on over the summer. Much love
Speaker 1: from New Zealand, Jason, keep up the great work. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for the kind words and for supporting
Speaker 1: the show. So this is something that I've always had.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit complicated because I dislike the idea
Speaker 1: of like giving too much credit to a star for
Speaker 1: a young player's development, because I want to give the
Speaker 1: young player credit for accomplishing what he's accomplished in the league.
Speaker 1: I think I think we can get a little over
Speaker 1: the top with a when like fans are like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, Lebron made this guy, or Steph made this guy,
Speaker 1: or Kobe made pau Gasol or whatever it is. You know,
Speaker 1: all the takes that you see. And I want to
Speaker 1: be clear, like we're going to get into it. I
Speaker 1: do think that that sort of thing does matter to
Speaker 1: a certain extent, But I do think it gets a
Speaker 1: little tricky when we take all of the credit away
Speaker 1: from what a young basketball player is able to accomplish.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, Like, everything in basketball, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is contagious. It's a big part of like and that
Speaker 1: goes both ways. Right. Positivity can be contagious. Negativity can
Speaker 1: be contagious, Like when you're in a locker room where
Speaker 1: you know some areas of the locker room are starting
Speaker 1: to kind of, you know, revolt against the coach or
Speaker 1: revolt against you know, a specific thing that's taking place,
Speaker 1: like that that misery loves company. Guys will kind of
Speaker 1: congeal together and they'll start to kind of cause problems. Right,
Speaker 1: And that goes both ways. But I do think that
Speaker 1: leading by example, having a guy that leads by example
Speaker 1: in your locker room can go a long way to
Speaker 1: shaping a young basketball player Dante di Vincenzo. Obviously, just
Speaker 1: watching him tonight against the Warriors, the movement, shooting, just
Speaker 1: the whole style that he plays with. Now you can
Speaker 1: tell that he picked up a lot from Stephan Clay
Speaker 1: very likely worked out with him. But I'd extended even
Speaker 1: to some of the other guys, guys like Jonathan Kamena
Speaker 1: and Moses Moody, like I mean Brianon Pitziemski too. I
Speaker 1: had a comment in the earlier show today, the Live
Speaker 1: show about the Warriors Nicks, about how I couldn't remember
Speaker 1: the ages. Someone confirmed it for me in the comments.
Speaker 1: All three of those guys are twenty one years old.
Speaker 1: Think about that, Like we have a question later on
Speaker 1: in the mailbag talking about asking about me when I
Speaker 1: played in college. I remember the player I was when
Speaker 1: I was twenty one, and I just can't even fathom
Speaker 1: doing some of the things. And I'm not even talking
Speaker 1: about talent. I just mean intellectually as a basketball player.
Speaker 1: I can't even fathom doing some of the things that
Speaker 1: these kids are doing at age twenty one. And I
Speaker 1: do think that that plays like a big part of
Speaker 1: that is like growing up in the NBA alongside the
Speaker 1: likes of Steph and Clay and Draymond and even Andre
Speaker 1: Guadala and how he helped early on with Moses Moody
Speaker 1: and Jonathan Kminga like like we are talking about, we
Speaker 1: are talking about the ideal environment for you to learn
Speaker 1: how to play NBA basketball, and I do think it's
Speaker 1: manifested in a big positive way for guys like Jonathan Cominga,
Speaker 1: for guys like Moses Moody, and for obviously Dante DiVincenzo
Speaker 1: as well. I again, I think it goes too far
Speaker 1: when we give the star all the credit, but there's
Speaker 1: no doubt that, like if you were if you were
Speaker 1: trying to plot a course for your basketball career, you
Speaker 1: can't do better as a role model, as a as
Speaker 1: a leader than Steph Curry to learn how to play
Speaker 1: the game from, to learn how to be an NBA
Speaker 1: player from, to learn how to be a professional from
Speaker 1: Hey Jason. There's been a lot of earned discussion about
Speaker 1: Pala Bancaro and Jay dub Jalen Williams this season, but
Speaker 1: two pretty impressive sophomores who have gotten sort of lost
Speaker 1: in the shuffle this year, or Jabari Smith and Keegan
Speaker 1: Murray what have you thought of of those two seasons
Speaker 1: so far and how good do you think they can
Speaker 1: be in about five years or so. Love the show,
Speaker 1: keep up the great work. Thanks again for supporting the
Speaker 1: show and for the kind words. Jabari Smith and Keig
Speaker 1: and Murray are kind of different players in my opinion,
Speaker 1: I've been impressed with Keieg and Murray mainly just because
Speaker 1: he kind of manifests in a lot of specific ways
Speaker 1: that help in the modern basketball world. Like, for instance,
Speaker 1: like let's take the Kings. The Kings are are a
Speaker 1: team that rebounds the ball really well. A big part
Speaker 1: of that is not just Keith and Murray, but also
Speaker 1: Kevin Herder in the way that they crash from the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Like there's a lot more long rebounds in the modern NBA.
Speaker 1: Keigan Murray is a guy that you know, he was
Speaker 1: a guy played in college for a long time, right,
Speaker 1: and he just does a lot of these like little
Speaker 1: things that help a basketball team win. Obviously, he can
Speaker 1: come off a screens and he can shoot. Obviously, he's
Speaker 1: a high level spot at player. I think he's at
Speaker 1: like one point one points per spot at possession this year,
Speaker 1: which is obviously really really really good. Both guys right now,
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray struggle a little bit with
Speaker 1: self creation. Jabari Smith is a level above Keegan Murray
Speaker 1: specifically in the post, but both of them can struggle
Speaker 1: a little bit. I do think that Jabari Smith has
Speaker 1: a significantly higher ceiling than Keegan Murray for two reasons. One,
Speaker 1: he's a much much better defensive project. Keegan Murray is
Speaker 1: a good straight line athlete, but he struggles with lateral quickness,
Speaker 1: and he's not a guy that has the level of
Speaker 1: defensive potential that a guy like Jabari Smith does. Jabari
Speaker 1: Smith has the potential to be like a legitimate, you know,
Speaker 1: top tier perimeter defender in this league. That's the potential
Speaker 1: that he has. It's just a question of whether or
Speaker 1: not he can get there. One other thing with Jabari Smith,
Speaker 1: I think he just has a little bit more of
Speaker 1: like what I would call like natural scoring chops, Like
Speaker 1: it's almost like a combination of audacity and creativity mixed
Speaker 1: with your skill set. And obviously Jabari has the work ethic.
Speaker 1: I mean, just go look back at last year with
Speaker 1: the Rockets and how poor he was putting the ball
Speaker 1: on the floor and how much he struggled, you know
Speaker 1: with just kind of like basic shot creation stuff, and
Speaker 1: like this year you're just seeing more of his ability
Speaker 1: to make quick plays out of the post against mismatches
Speaker 1: and get to quick spots for short mid range jump
Speaker 1: shots that he can knock down. Like he's just taking
Speaker 1: significant leaps on that end of the floor. Right, So,
Speaker 1: like I U, there are two really really good young wings.
Speaker 1: To me, they're very different, like to give you guys
Speaker 1: just an example, and these are not perfect comps, but
Speaker 1: like in the same way that like you have McHale
Speaker 1: Bridges and Cam Johnson as like two versions of you know,
Speaker 1: six seven six eight wings that to me is what
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray are kind of kind of represent.
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith is more and a McHale Bridges are like
Speaker 1: a trajectory where I really do think he could add
Speaker 1: some legitimate off the dribble game, a guy that could
Speaker 1: potentially average twenty points a game in the league one
Speaker 1: day efficiently and and also be an excellent perimeter defender, Whereas,
Speaker 1: like you know, Cam Johnson is more of like an
Speaker 1: offensive minded wing that you know, there's a like like
Speaker 1: it just kind of fits more into that mold for
Speaker 1: me for like a Keegan Murray type. Again not perfect comps,
Speaker 1: but those are just some some examples. But I love
Speaker 1: both of those guys. I was super, super impressed by
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith at Summer League this year when I went
Speaker 1: to go see him in Vegas. Just I can't believe
Speaker 1: how much he's improved in such such a short period
Speaker 1: of time. And honestly, specifically with Jabari, like he's made
Speaker 1: improvements in ball handling, and like that stuff just is
Speaker 1: super incremental, Like it takes thousands and thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of reps to become a good ball handler
Speaker 1: when you didn't used to be. And so all that
Speaker 1: says to me is that he's a gym rat and
Speaker 1: that he's competitive enough to want to develop that part
Speaker 1: of his game and to get better. And so that
Speaker 1: just tells me within five years or so that he
Speaker 1: does have the potential to reach the level of like
Speaker 1: a guy like mckail Bridges, which by the way, Jabari
Speaker 1: has better measurables, and so he could even be a
Speaker 1: better version of that next question, how good of a
Speaker 1: hooper are you? And what's your player comp You said
Speaker 1: you played in college, and that's impressive, honestly, Plus how
Speaker 1: many threes have you made in a row? So I
Speaker 1: won't go into too much detail here because it's more
Speaker 1: of a conversation for the offseason if I wanted to
Speaker 1: spend some time kind of breaking it down for you guys.
Speaker 1: But the gist of it is I was a late bloomer,
Speaker 1: didn't grow up playing basketball. I was the worst player
Speaker 1: on my high school team. Literally on senior night, there
Speaker 1: were six seniors on the roster, and all five of
Speaker 1: the other seniors started the game, and I didn't play
Speaker 1: a single minute. And by the way, the coach was
Speaker 1: correct to do so, I was not. I would have
Speaker 1: severely hampered their ability to compete in that game. I
Speaker 1: really really really dove into basketball in my late teens,
Speaker 1: and my third year in college I finally walked into
Speaker 1: an open gym at a juco and played well enough
Speaker 1: to get a scholarship. That was kind of how my
Speaker 1: career started. I ended up playing three seasons because of
Speaker 1: the way that the NCAA clock clockworks. I had an
Speaker 1: all conference selection my second season in junior college, and
Speaker 1: then I played a three and D role basically for
Speaker 1: a NAIA team as my third year I was a
Speaker 1: pretty mediocre college basketball player. I had my moments, but
Speaker 1: I also had my flaws. Specifically at the Naia level,
Speaker 1: they really exposed some of my offensive limitations. I stayed
Speaker 1: on the floor at Naia because I could guard. I'm
Speaker 1: a good athlete and I'm like sixty six with like
Speaker 1: a six ten wingspan, so I could guard. I just
Speaker 1: would guard the other team's best player. That was basically
Speaker 1: my role on that particular team. I didn't really develop
Speaker 1: into a like what I consider to be a better
Speaker 1: version of or the best version of myself as a
Speaker 1: basketball player to my late twenties, just because, like I
Speaker 1: fell in love with the game, but I didn't grow
Speaker 1: up playing it, so like, you know, the feeling that
Speaker 1: I would imagine most young basketball players feel when they're
Speaker 1: twelve thirteen years old, when they're starting to kind of
Speaker 1: figure it out and love the game, Like I was
Speaker 1: hitting that in my mid twenties, because like, I didn't
Speaker 1: play when I was young, and so I had some
Speaker 1: success in college and that was like my first experience
Speaker 1: with the game, and so I just dove headlong into
Speaker 1: it after that and made significant improvements. Like I in Anaia,
Speaker 1: I was really exposed as a guy who couldn't dribble,
Speaker 1: who was an inconsistent, streaky shooter, and a guy that
Speaker 1: couldn't read the floor. And so that those were the
Speaker 1: three things that I massively improved on as I got
Speaker 1: later on in life. And now when I play, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm like a playmaking wing. Like I'm a guy that
Speaker 1: you know that initiates offense and can score and pass
Speaker 1: and do all those things. It definitely did not used
Speaker 1: to be the case. How many threes have I made
Speaker 1: in a row in a college game. My record for
Speaker 1: threes made in a row is six, and I did
Speaker 1: it in a game when I was in junior college
Speaker 1: and it was during the game that I had my
Speaker 1: career high in points, which was thirty one. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that was I Also I said I was streaky and inconsistent.
Speaker 1: I had a stretch when I was playing Naia where
Speaker 1: I missed twenty two threes in a row over the
Speaker 1: course of a week. Like actually, my coach once again
Speaker 1: made the right decision, had to sit down with me
Speaker 1: and be like, hey, like, we need you to kind
Speaker 1: of tone back your shot selection a little bit, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, it was right to do because I
Speaker 1: came in as a junior college scorer who got exposed
Speaker 1: in any Ia as a guy who like couldn't score
Speaker 1: at that specific level. Anyia like older guys, much better coaching.
Speaker 1: You know, Juco. The athleticism was insane. I played in
Speaker 1: an insane conference when I was in Juco. The talent
Speaker 1: level was unbelievable, but everything was so much more loose
Speaker 1: and spread out. It was just easier to play. And
Speaker 1: then when I went to Anaia and like help, defense
Speaker 1: is always loaded up, and every team just like shell drills,
Speaker 1: you know, sixteen times a week and just there every
Speaker 1: you're just if you happen to beat your guy off
Speaker 1: the dribble, there's just another guy right away. If rotations
Speaker 1: are super sharp, like it was, just Anaia was a really,
Speaker 1: really tough level of basketball, And honestly, it was good
Speaker 1: for me because it exposed all of the things that
Speaker 1: I sucked at and helped me understand what I needed
Speaker 1: to get better at in order to be a better
Speaker 1: basketball player. Next question, what do you think goes into
Speaker 1: a down shooting season? Curious about the process it takes
Speaker 1: to maintain your shooting percentage during a season in career.
Speaker 1: For example, Lebron being thirty six thirty seven percent from
Speaker 1: three to the last few years, then having a thirty percent
Speaker 1: season and follow it up with a forty one percent season. Uh. Thanks,
Speaker 1: love the show, Congrats on the success again, thank you
Speaker 1: for the kind words and for the support. I think
Speaker 1: it's a combination of a coupled in different factors because
Speaker 1: I personally experienced this. The year that I made the
Speaker 1: All Conference team, the I shot like forty eight forty
Speaker 1: nine percent from three in conference play, Like I was
Speaker 1: just I was just like super confident and like I
Speaker 1: always felt like I had it going every single game.
Speaker 1: I just was so laser focused and locked in. And
Speaker 1: then it was literally a non conference play the next
Speaker 1: season that I missed twenty two in a row. So
Speaker 1: that kind of gives you some perspective on like how
Speaker 1: wild those swings can be. Now, for me, the big
Speaker 1: thing was a role change on the JUCO team. I
Speaker 1: was the secondlyading scorer on the team. The offense was
Speaker 1: built around me and this other guard named Miles Gatewood,
Speaker 1: a really good player, really good guard. Him and I
Speaker 1: basically everything in the offense was set up for us.
Speaker 1: When I went to ACU by the Naia that it
Speaker 1: played at. I played alongside two All American guards and
Speaker 1: both of them were just unbelievable. Tolly Buda, the point
Speaker 1: guard on that team, is the best basketball player that
Speaker 1: I've ever personally played with. And like, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: my role was different. Early in the season, I had
Speaker 1: a like a big scoring burst in my very first game.
Speaker 1: We played a game against nau SO Division one school
Speaker 1: and NCAA Division one school. We actually beat them, and
Speaker 1: I had a big scoring burst in that game. And
Speaker 1: so in the early portion of the season, I was
Speaker 1: really aggressive as a scorer, but my efficiency like just
Speaker 1: immediately tanked and pretty quickly. Like I mentioned in the
Speaker 1: last question, my coach was sitting down with me about
Speaker 1: like not looking basically told me like don't shoot unless
Speaker 1: you're taking a wide open three or running your lane
Speaker 1: in transition, you know what a coach would do for
Speaker 1: a flawed player like me. To that coach's credit, he
Speaker 1: funneled me into what I was good at, which was
Speaker 1: like defense and rebounding and you know, playing a small
Speaker 1: role on offense at that specific level. Well, as I
Speaker 1: shifted into that small role, like shooting became a real
Speaker 1: challenge for me because instead of hunting my shot and
Speaker 1: getting six seven three point attempts per game, I was
Speaker 1: getting maybe one or two three point attempts per game,
Speaker 1: And so and they would come like I wouldn't touch
Speaker 1: the ball for a while and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'd have a catch and shoot three opportunity. And that
Speaker 1: was a real struggle for me. And so I think
Speaker 1: it's a combination of a bunch of different factors. A
Speaker 1: guy like Lebron, the role has been the same all
Speaker 1: the time, and so his swings a lot of it
Speaker 1: is really just like happenstance, Like shooting is a is
Speaker 1: a is a like, for lack of a better term,
Speaker 1: it's a mind fuck. Like you, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: it's kind of like baseball in the sense that like,
Speaker 1: even if you're really really good at it, you're gonna
Speaker 1: miss more than you make, and so you can do
Speaker 1: everything right and the result can still be a miss,
Speaker 1: and so it can spiral on you, right, Like I
Speaker 1: honestly felt that way watching Lebron, where like you could
Speaker 1: just tell last year like it was like they just
Speaker 1: weren't going in and you could just tell it gets
Speaker 1: mentally discouraging and it's like, it doesn't matter if you
Speaker 1: took and made four hundred threes in practice the previous day.
Speaker 1: If you go into the game and you get you know,
Speaker 1: two or three looks and you happen to miss two
Speaker 1: of them, and then on the third one you're not confident, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it can really pile up on you. Now how to
Speaker 1: handle it? Like I remember in that the NAI season
Speaker 1: that I'm talking about, I mean, I was obsessive about it.
Speaker 1: I was in the gym every single day, shooting on
Speaker 1: the shooting machine. My buddy Harshall, who was my roommate
Speaker 1: that season, him and I were going up to the
Speaker 1: gym at night and doing the shooting these shooting drills
Speaker 1: like we've just we'd been there at eleven thirty pm
Speaker 1: with a with a speaker blasting, just shooting and shooting
Speaker 1: and shooting and shooting. And like, I was obsessive about it.
Speaker 1: And what's crazy is even with that, I barely got
Speaker 1: up to I think I shot in the low thirties
Speaker 1: from three in conference play that season, because again the
Speaker 1: role was so funky. I was just I was barely
Speaker 1: getting touches, which was the right decision with the level
Speaker 1: of player I was at that point. But again, like
Speaker 1: a couple different things, it's a combination of role shifts,
Speaker 1: Like I really do think like, for instance, I'm Elik Beasley,
Speaker 1: Like he's just getting different and better shots for Milwaukee
Speaker 1: this year than he did for the Lakers last year.
Speaker 1: The Lakers were constantly running him off of off ball
Speaker 1: actions and asking him to shoot those are tougher shots.
Speaker 1: Milwaukee was just like you're a spot up guy, but
Speaker 1: just if you're open, or if you even have an
Speaker 1: inch of space, you let that thing fly. And so
Speaker 1: you can see a role shift from Alik Beasley got
Speaker 1: him back on track, right. So it's a combination of
Speaker 1: the role and then honest to god, it really is
Speaker 1: just a really mentally challenging thing. You know, Like Steph
Speaker 1: Courage just went they were a shooting slept there for
Speaker 1: like a week or so, right, Like you don't think
Speaker 1: that dude wasn't doing all his drills and doing everything
Speaker 1: behind the scenes right, and yet still the results were off.
Speaker 1: Like there is a certain amount of just you know,
Speaker 1: I don't even think it's variance. I think it's it's
Speaker 1: mostly just the mental aspect of it and the way
Speaker 1: that it can misses can pile up on you, but
Speaker 1: the same thing happens in reverse, the makes pile up
Speaker 1: on you. You make a couple in a row, you
Speaker 1: feel really good about yourself. You feel really confident all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, like you can kind of ride that
Speaker 1: wave for a little bit, right, And so, but I
Speaker 1: don't want to underestimate or undersell the work element of it.
Speaker 1: So like lastly on that Lebron front shoots thirty percent
Speaker 1: or whatever last year and then shoots forty one percent
Speaker 1: this year, You bet your ass. Lebron was in the
Speaker 1: gym all damn summer, like I got to get my
Speaker 1: jumper fixed, right, And so he was able to ride
Speaker 1: that out for a long stretch of time in the summer,
Speaker 1: and then he went into training camp and saw the results.
Speaker 1: Now he's confident. And now just watch Lebron shoot this year.
Speaker 1: Doesn't it just look different than last year. He's rising
Speaker 1: into shots confidently in a way that he didn't used to.
Speaker 1: Even tonight I was watching him, it was so funny.
Speaker 1: The Lakers ended up in a dog fight with the
Speaker 1: Washington Wizards because they're just because they're just the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and uh, Lebron ended up basically saving the game with
Speaker 1: a chase down block at Jordan Poole and then he
Speaker 1: hit a step back three over I want to say,
Speaker 1: over Kyle Kuzma on the right wing, and like it was,
Speaker 1: it was a tough shot. It might have been over
Speaker 1: Marvin Bagley, but like like he stepped into it confidently
Speaker 1: and he just wasn't doing that last year. And so
Speaker 1: again to kind of tie it all together, it's a
Speaker 1: combination of just like the really challenging mental aspects of shooting,
Speaker 1: and then your role and then the way you fight
Speaker 1: it is. All you can do is work. I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in like I want to be thinking when
Speaker 1: I'm shooting about how I worked hard, Like I want
Speaker 1: to derive confidence when I'm shooting from the fact that
Speaker 1: I've made this shot a hundred times already today. You know,
Speaker 1: It's a big part of why like to this day,
Speaker 1: and I tell to the young basketball players in town
Speaker 1: that I work with, including the high school kids I coach, like,
Speaker 1: if I go play pick up, like I will show
Speaker 1: up to the gym thirty to forty five minutes before
Speaker 1: the pickup starts, and I will do my full shooting workout.
Speaker 1: Why so that when I step onto the floor to
Speaker 1: actually play, I just feel confident in those shots. And like, again,
Speaker 1: I haven't like I'm an older guy now, I'm thirty
Speaker 1: two years old. I'm just playing for fun. But it's
Speaker 1: just I'm incapable of approaching basketball any other way. It's
Speaker 1: just the way that I'm wired. Next question, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: loved the show. I was wondering, do you think we
Speaker 1: will see all kinds of shenanigans in the fifth and
Speaker 1: sixth spot and even teams intentionally losing and going into
Speaker 1: the play in from the seventh or eighth spot just
Speaker 1: to avoid the Nuggets. I believe that a seventh or
Speaker 1: eighth spot, if not crossed with the Nuggets, can go
Speaker 1: all the way to the conference final. But does it
Speaker 1: is it worth the risk of a single elimination game?
Speaker 1: So first, from the play in spots, no doubt at all.
Speaker 1: You got to try to get out of the play
Speaker 1: in spots. There's just too much variance there, like for instance,
Speaker 1: Lakers Warriors, like, you've got to try to get out
Speaker 1: of that spot because go let's say for instance, you're
Speaker 1: the Lakers and you end up at the ten seed,
Speaker 1: you gotta go too Golden State to win and then
Speaker 1: go to like a Phoenix or a New Orleans or
Speaker 1: a Dallas or a Sacramento. Like that's just a lot
Speaker 1: to ask to even get into a first round series,
Speaker 1: even if you like the matchup when you get there. Also,
Speaker 1: you gotta go through the good teams no matter what.
Speaker 1: And in the Western Conference, they're all good teams. I
Speaker 1: even think those playing teams are good teams. I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers and Warriors are good teams. They're not great teams,
Speaker 1: they're not as good as the teams that are above them,
Speaker 1: but they're good basketball teams. So like it's not like
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, where you know, I think we could
Speaker 1: see some teams in the seven and eight spot that
Speaker 1: are are a little bit more flawed. As for the
Speaker 1: stuff around the fifth and sixth spot and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: it's really hard to say because like I thought the
Speaker 1: Nuggets were about to skyrocket and take the one seed,
Speaker 1: but then Jamal Murray turns his ankle, and who knows
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I am a big believer and like, don't mess with
Speaker 1: the basketball gods, Like you're better off playing basketball. The
Speaker 1: best you possibly can to build out the identity and
Speaker 1: the habits and everything you need to win playoff series
Speaker 1: regardless of who your opponent is. Then you are like
Speaker 1: trying to mess with that a little bit, to try
Speaker 1: to jerry rig the matchups. Next question, the revisionist history
Speaker 1: concerning the state of the Lakers team and pointing and
Speaker 1: painting Lebron as some victim is ridiculous. Lebron is just
Speaker 1: as much responsible for the state of the Lakers as
Speaker 1: the front office, if not more so. Throughout his career,
Speaker 1: Lebron plays a huge role in players acquired or traded.
Speaker 1: Every star player does, but it's clearly on another level
Speaker 1: with Lebron. When it works, he's a genius legm. But
Speaker 1: when it doesn't, the front office is sabotaging him. He
Speaker 1: wanted Westbrook, that's a fact. Okay, So a couple things.
Speaker 1: First of all, Lebron's two major impacts on the Lakers
Speaker 1: from a LAYGM standpoint were the Russell Westbrook trade, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's a fact, and the Anthony Davis trade. So the
Speaker 1: idea that he's just as much responsible for the state
Speaker 1: of the Lakers as the front office is something I
Speaker 1: vehemently disagree with because Lebron also facilitated Anthony Davis trade
Speaker 1: which led to an NBA championship. So whatever you say
Speaker 1: about the Russell Westbrook trade, that's kind of canceled out
Speaker 1: the rest of the stuff that the front office did.
Speaker 1: Between letting brook Lopez walk for nothing, how good would
Speaker 1: Brook Lopez be alongside Anthony Davis, just watch him next
Speaker 1: to Giannis, right to letting Julius Randall walk for absolutely nothing,
Speaker 1: to the way they constructed that first roster with all
Speaker 1: this playmaking around Lebron with no shooting to like the
Speaker 1: immediate after they win the NBA Championship, immediate lack of
Speaker 1: understanding or appreciation of what the role players did, and
Speaker 1: immediately starting to get off of all of them. The
Speaker 1: as far as the Russell Westbrook trade goes, here's where
Speaker 1: here's where I would give pushback. I agree Lebron James.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't even say agree. It's a fact that Lebron
Speaker 1: James pushed strongly for the Russell Westbrook trade. I personally
Speaker 1: was completely stunned that he did. So here's the thing.
Speaker 1: The general manager of the Lost Angelis Lakers is responsible
Speaker 1: for making personnel decisions, and if you are the general manager.
Speaker 1: Just put yourself in the GM's shoes. And Lebron comes
Speaker 1: up to you and goes, I want Russell Westbrook. You
Speaker 1: look him back in the face and you go that's
Speaker 1: a terrible idea because of XYZ. Because you are the
Speaker 1: basketball expert. Your job is personnel. And the problem is
Speaker 1: Lebron wanted Russ, but he had support from the front
Speaker 1: office and they put the deal through. When there was
Speaker 1: a there were like it was never the direction that
Speaker 1: they should have gone. The Russell Westbrook trade was clearly
Speaker 1: a bad idea in the moment when it happened, and
Speaker 1: we all knew it. I said it right after the trade.
Speaker 1: I was like, KCP and Kyle Kuzma are both more
Speaker 1: valuable to the Lakers team than what Russell Westbrook could
Speaker 1: bring to this team. And you had to give up
Speaker 1: both of them and a first round draft pick to
Speaker 1: get him. It was a complete disaster. And I absolutely
Speaker 1: think no that Lebron pushed for it, and that obviously
Speaker 1: it was a bad idea. But at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, that is yet another element to what makes
Speaker 1: that front office so frustrating is that they couldn't. They
Speaker 1: couldn't even like your job as the front office is
Speaker 1: to filter suggestions from everybody that works in your front office,
Speaker 1: and from your star players and from your coach. You
Speaker 1: filter through all of that, and from your owner, right,
Speaker 1: you filter through all of that. The fact that Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook didn't get caught in the Lakers filter, that's the
Speaker 1: discouraging part. And so here's the thing. Criticize Lebron for
Speaker 1: pushing the Russell west Per trade all you want. That
Speaker 1: does not alleviate the complete and total other, you know
Speaker 1: dozen other shit show things that that front office did
Speaker 1: that help them lead to where they're at, even like
Speaker 1: after the Denver Nuggets series, a clear need for a
Speaker 1: two way athlete on the perimeter, and you let Lonnie
Speaker 1: Walker and Dennis Schroeder go and do nothing to replace
Speaker 1: those guys, which by the way, I was okay with
Speaker 1: over the summer because I was like, fine, do it
Speaker 1: at the deadline, and then they didn't do it at
Speaker 1: the deadline. So, like, it's been a consistent issue with
Speaker 1: this front office, a fundamental misunderstanding of what Lebron, James
Speaker 1: and Anthony Davis need around them to win basketball games.
Speaker 1: And it has been frustrating because that's the thing like
Speaker 1: that's the general manager's job literally by definition, is to
Speaker 1: understand player personnel, understand their stars, understand what they need
Speaker 1: to succeed, filter suggestions, and build the roster accordingly. And
Speaker 1: they just haven't done a good job of that, I
Speaker 1: mean even And then I include the ownership group because
Speaker 1: it's like the ownership group is the one that disrespected
Speaker 1: ty Lou when they had a deal in place because
Speaker 1: they didn't want to pay him like a championship coach,
Speaker 1: because they were being cheap. Let Alex Crusoe walk for
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing because they didn't want to be a pay
Speaker 1: him because they were being cheap. Like from the top down.
Speaker 1: With the Lakers, it has been incompetence and it's only
Speaker 1: through Lebron's play on the court that he's been able
Speaker 1: in with Anthony Davis as well, that they've been able
Speaker 1: to overcome it the way that they have over the
Speaker 1: years too. Literally a championship in a Western Conference finals birth, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, I would argue is an underachievement given
Speaker 1: the like if you had told me you were gonna
Speaker 1: get five years of Lebron James and Anthony Davis together,
Speaker 1: like you're thinking two titles, right, like that that's what
Speaker 1: you're thinking, and they should have, and like there's a
Speaker 1: case to be made that if you had, you know,
Speaker 1: a top tier NBAGM in control of that position, that
Speaker 1: they probably do have multiple championships. Next question, seeing the
Speaker 1: guitars in your background for a while now and for
Speaker 1: a while now, just wondered how much experience you have playing.
Speaker 1: Also wondered what are a couple of your favorite bands
Speaker 1: and albums, old and recent. Love your content as always,
Speaker 1: thanks again for supporting the show. I play guitar very recreationally,
Speaker 1: like maybe three four hours a week. I'm not particularly
Speaker 1: good at it. I've been doing it for like ten
Speaker 1: fifteen years, so like I can play little bit, but
Speaker 1: like not in any sort of meaningful way. One day
Speaker 1: my body will fail me and I won't be able
Speaker 1: to play basketball as much as I do. And on
Speaker 1: that day, that's when I will devote all of that
Speaker 1: energy towards guitar and I will try to get significantly
Speaker 1: better at it, just as just because that again, like
Speaker 1: I talked about earlier, it's just kind of how I'm wired.
Speaker 1: So that will be when I tried to get better
Speaker 1: at it. But right now it's strictly just a hobby.
Speaker 1: I grew up on the Allman Brothers band. That was
Speaker 1: what my dad kind of exposed me to, and then
Speaker 1: in my later life I've gotten more into the Grateful
Speaker 1: Dead and Dead in Company and a lot of that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Blues in particular has always been my
Speaker 1: favorite kind of like brand of or genre of music.
Speaker 1: I should say see Verry Vam is a big one
Speaker 1: for me. Jimmy Hendrix is a big one for me.
Speaker 1: Eric Clapton was a big one for me. Derek Truck's
Speaker 1: is one of my all time favorites too. Those are
Speaker 1: a lot of the guys that have kind of shaped
Speaker 1: my kind of taste in music. Don't you think it's
Speaker 1: odd how everyone was saying before the season that Milwaukee
Speaker 1: would have a bumpy regular season and now everyone is
Speaker 1: panicking because of some ups and downs. Don't you think
Speaker 1: that as a veteran team they should be judged in
Speaker 1: the playoffs? So agreed. I was one of the people
Speaker 1: before the season that said I thought the Bucks would
Speaker 1: have a bumpy regular season and that Boston would kind
Speaker 1: of beat them by a lot in the standings. I
Speaker 1: will say that we have learned from the x's and
Speaker 1: o's that I mean up until recently, up until this
Speaker 1: recent stretch, that the point of attack defense stuff was
Speaker 1: a concern. But I think between Doc rivers just getting
Speaker 1: them to engage better, the improvement that Malik Beasley has
Speaker 1: made over the course of the season as a point
Speaker 1: of attack defender, Jay Crowder kind of weirdly having some
Speaker 1: life in his legs. It's kind of erased some of
Speaker 1: those concerns and now more or less back to where
Speaker 1: I was before the season with Milwaukee. But I do
Speaker 1: agree that they're a veteran team that should be judged
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. I'm more concerned about whether or not
Speaker 1: Dame can get back to his peak level offensively. Next
Speaker 1: question or this is more of a comment Jason Tripping
Speaker 1: saying that Jokich over Curry and Lebron all time already.
Speaker 1: I never said that. I don't even know where you're
Speaker 1: getting that from. I never said Jokich is over Curry
Speaker 1: and Lebron all time. He has a long way and
Speaker 1: more than one more championship he needs to win, and
Speaker 1: probably another MVP or two along the way, Like Jokic
Speaker 1: has ground to cover there. The conversation surrounding Jokich and
Speaker 1: Curry and Lebron is just simply about their peaks, which
Speaker 1: is completely different. It's like Lebron MJ. Like, Lebron might
Speaker 1: be the goat one day, but his case is going
Speaker 1: to be the resume in longevity. Like, Lebron's not touching
Speaker 1: the dominance that MJ had in the nineties. He literally
Speaker 1: won six titles in eight years. He was unquestionably considered
Speaker 1: the best player in the league for a long time.
Speaker 1: Lebron was unquestionably considered the best player in the league
Speaker 1: for like three four years. Right, they're in the early
Speaker 1: twenty tents, and then he was still the best player
Speaker 1: in my opinion in the late twenty tens, but it
Speaker 1: was much closer between him and KD and Steph. Right,
Speaker 1: MJ was just lapping the entire field for basically the
Speaker 1: entire nineties. And so again that that's the difference between
Speaker 1: those two conversations, right, And like, even when it comes
Speaker 1: to ranking goats or whoever your goat is, everyone'sia is different,
Speaker 1: So like that gets complicated. But for me personally, my
Speaker 1: all time rankings, Jokich is still He's still got a
Speaker 1: lot of ways to go to get to where Lebron
Speaker 1: and Steph are. I'm just saying that his ceiling, his
Speaker 1: absolute peak that he's achieved right now is more on
Speaker 1: the echelon with the MJ's and the Kobe's and the
Speaker 1: Lebron's and stuff than where Steph and KD are to
Speaker 1: put it, simply because I had a bunch of warriors
Speaker 1: fans go like, oh, well, it's unfair. Why are you
Speaker 1: comparing Steph and KD when they were underneath Lebron. Here's
Speaker 1: the simple counter there. Steph couldn't even separate himself from KD.
Speaker 1: KD couldn't even separate separate himself from Steph. That's kind
Speaker 1: of the point. Like I personally think Steph was better
Speaker 1: than KD for the majority of his prime, but that
Speaker 1: is very much up for debate, and if you asked
Speaker 1: one hundred people, it's probably gonna come out near fifty
Speaker 1: to fifty. That Like, that's the difference those two guys
Speaker 1: were competing against each other. They're kind of in a
Speaker 1: different pier than where Lebron was and where Yokich is now,
Speaker 1: where MJ was in the nineties, where Kobe was in
Speaker 1: the late two thousands. Last question, how can you say
Speaker 1: Yoka's peak is higher when he's really just getting into it.
Speaker 1: During Stephan Katie's peak, they were either winning championships or
Speaker 1: having deep playoff runs. Jokic literally just won his first
Speaker 1: championship last season, and before that it's very limited playoff success.
Speaker 1: At least give him some time before you make claims
Speaker 1: like this. Let's just kind of recap here in the
Speaker 1: regular season, he's about to win his third MVP and
Speaker 1: four tries, and he was the front runner most of
Speaker 1: last year before he basically punted it at the end
Speaker 1: of the season. Also, twenty twenty, he upset the championship
Speaker 1: favorite in the Los Angeles Clippers and went to the
Speaker 1: Western Conference Finals twenty twenty one down his two very
Speaker 1: very important other starters in the starting lineup. They literally
Speaker 1: beat the Portland Trailblazers in the first round like they
Speaker 1: won a playoff series down Jamal Murray in down Michael
Speaker 1: Porter Junior. And then in twenty twenty two they lost
Speaker 1: to the eventual NBA champions and then in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three they won the NBA title as soon as Jamal
Speaker 1: Murray and Michael Porter Junior re entered the equation. So
Speaker 1: Western Conference Finals birth where he beat the Clippers and
Speaker 1: lost to the eventual champion, and then injured team loses
Speaker 1: to the Suns in the second round, injured team loses
Speaker 1: to the eventual NBA champion, and then wins the NBA Championship.
Speaker 1: So over a four year span, we're gonna have he's
Speaker 1: about to win his third MVP and four tries, and
Speaker 1: in his last four playoff runs either lost to the
Speaker 1: eventual champion twice, once a long time ago, the other
Speaker 1: one when he was significantly hampered, and then he won
Speaker 1: a title. So like again, the results in the regular
Speaker 1: season in the postseason with Yogics are significantly above I
Speaker 1: think where the public perception is. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for today. I am going to
Speaker 1: most likely cover Nuggets Lakers on Saturday night, but I
Speaker 1: don't know if that'll be on the feed until Saturday
Speaker 1: night or Sunday morning, and then we're going live on
Speaker 1: Sunday after the final buzzer of Celtics Warriors. I will
Speaker 1: see you guys. Then the volume