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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to him tonight here at

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Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody, Oh all of you guys

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Speaker 1: had a great weekend. We are starting the top ten

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Speaker 1: of our player rankings today with number ten Anthony Davis,

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Speaker 1: going to do a very deep dive into ad some

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Speaker 1: of the ups and downs of his career with relation

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Speaker 1: to health, also with relation to his skill development. I

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Speaker 1: even want to zoom out a little bit towards the

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Speaker 1: end and talk about his perception of the center position

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Speaker 1: versus the power forward position in some of the strengths

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Speaker 1: and weaknesses of that approach, and some of the things

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Speaker 1: we got to keep an eye out for him with

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Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks in that regard. And then at the

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Speaker 1: tail end of the show, one of the things we're

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Speaker 1: going to start doing, since we're only doing one player

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Speaker 1: at a time from this point forward, is we're going

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Speaker 1: to start hitting some bigger picture basketball debate types of topic.

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Speaker 1: And today we're actually going to start with one that

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Speaker 1: was a raging debate online last week while while I

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Speaker 1: was in Alaska, and I give you guys just a

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Speaker 1: very quick, kind of like thirty thousand foot version of

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Speaker 1: my opinion. But I wanted to kind of dive deeper

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Speaker 1: into the concept, and it's about two basketball players, one

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Speaker 1: of which is a champion, one of which is not. However,

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Speaker 1: the player who's not a champion is a guy that

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Speaker 1: I view as the better basketball player, and I want

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Speaker 1: to kind of dive into that concept. It's Kyrie Irving

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Speaker 1: versus Chris Paul and who I think is a better

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Speaker 1: basketball player at their absolute peak. So we're going to

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Speaker 1: dive into that at the tail end of the show.

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Speaker 1: You guys are the joke before we get started. To

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Speaker 1: subscribe to the Hoops and Not YouTube channel so you

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Speaker 1: don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter,

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Speaker 1: underscore jcnlts, you guys, don't miss show announcements. Don't forget

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Speaker 1: aboutter podcast for you or every podcast under Hoops Tonight.

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Speaker 1: It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and

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Speaker 1: a review on that front. Jackson's also doing incredible work

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Speaker 1: on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you guys follow us there. In the last

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Speaker 1: but not least, if you disagree with any of these

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Speaker 1: rankings in any way, shape or form. Where you're doing

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Speaker 1: Friday mailbags throughout the remainder of this series where you

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Speaker 1: guys have the opportunity to explain why you disagree guy

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Speaker 1: too high, guy too low, whatever it might be. Just

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Speaker 1: right mail bag with the colon, write your elevator pitch

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Speaker 1: just as concisely as possible, your basketball case for why

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Speaker 1: you disagree with a ranking, or even if it's just

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Speaker 1: something you want me to elaborate on a bit further.

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Speaker 1: Put that in the YouTube comments and we'll get to

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Speaker 1: those in our Friday mail bags throughout the remainder of

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Speaker 1: this series. All right, let's talk some basketball. So number ten,

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Speaker 1: Anthony Davis, as last season in review, played in just

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Speaker 1: fifty one games. We're going to talk about ad and

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Speaker 1: kind of his history with health here in a little bit.

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Speaker 1: Came out guns blazing to start the year, as he

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Speaker 1: was very heavily featured in JJ Redick's offense early in

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Speaker 1: the season. In his first twenty five games, he averaged

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Speaker 1: a super efficient twenty eight points per game to go

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Speaker 1: with three point two steels plus blocks per game. He

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Speaker 1: was legit playing at that top tier superstar level to

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Speaker 1: start the season. Then he got a little banged up.

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Speaker 1: You're starting to deal with a couple of nagging injuries,

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Speaker 1: and he slowed down pretty significantly after that point. He

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Speaker 1: averaged just twenty three points per game on lower efficiency

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Speaker 1: over his final seventeen games as a Laker. Also, as

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Speaker 1: he started to not perform as well on offense, he

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Speaker 1: started to become less and less featured in the offense,

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Speaker 1: which seemed to take him even further out of rhythm.

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Speaker 1: It just was starting to look like more or less

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Speaker 1: the offensive player that we had seen in previous seasons.

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Speaker 1: But he did come out guns blazing to start the year,

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Speaker 1: and then he ended up finally succumbing to a groin

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Speaker 1: injury which kept him out the majority of the rest

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Speaker 1: of the season. He ended up playing just nine games

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Speaker 1: as a Dallas Maverick after the Lukadancics trade. Finished the

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Speaker 1: year in the total of the fifty one games at

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Speaker 1: twenty five points, twelve rebounds in four assists, three point

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Speaker 1: four stocks per game, and his percentages fifty four percent

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Speaker 1: from the field, twenty eight percent from three to seventy

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Speaker 1: eight percent from the line, which amounts to fifty four

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Speaker 1: percent an effective field goal percentage waited for threes and

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Speaker 1: fifty nine percent in true shooting. This is where I

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Speaker 1: want to start in the health arena for just a minute,

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Speaker 1: because it's always an important context with AD. Eighty has

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Speaker 1: a pretty low, large gap between what his potential ceiling

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Speaker 1: is and what his potential floor is relative to some

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Speaker 1: of these guys, Like there's a case to be made

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Speaker 1: that he belongs in that Kawhi Leonard Joel Embard grouping

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Speaker 1: closer to the bottom of this tier. I disagree because

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Speaker 1: I think he's considerably more reliable than those two guys.

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Speaker 1: But there are going to be people who disagree with

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Speaker 1: this ranking based on the idea that Ad is not

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Speaker 1: healthy enough, and there is some legitimacy to that argument.

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Speaker 1: I was hopeful as a Lakers fan that after that

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four season, which if you remember, that was

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Speaker 1: a return to form for Ad from the standpoint of

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Speaker 1: his health. He played in seventy six games. He made

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Speaker 1: the All NBA team second Team All NBA, which was

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Speaker 1: his first time making an All NBA team since the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty season when they won the title, And so

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Speaker 1: it looked like, is this gonna be the segment of

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Speaker 1: AD's career where he kind of figures out the health

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Speaker 1: stuff and he starts to be more available and he

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Speaker 1: just couldn't in the following season, goes for fifty one game,

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Speaker 1: suffers a growing injury soft tissue injury pretty simp similar

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Speaker 1: to some of the injuries he had had early in

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Speaker 1: earlier in his Lakers tenure. So if you zoom out

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Speaker 1: in the four seasons surrounding Anthony Davis's seventy six game

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Speaker 1: All NBA season, he averages forty six games played, thirty

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Speaker 1: six games in twenty twenty one, forty games in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty two, fifty six and twenty twenty three, and fifty

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Speaker 1: one in twenty twenty five. So now when I look

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Speaker 1: at him relative to the Mbat Kawhi tier, first of all,

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Speaker 1: Joel Embiid and Kawhi are both dealing with severe degenerative

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Speaker 1: issues in their knees, issues that have completely dominated this

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Speaker 1: phase of their careers and have been recurring in the

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Speaker 1: same knee, and that makes them, in my opinion, significantly

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Speaker 1: less reliable than an Anthony Davis who's just been dealing

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Speaker 1: with some soft tissue related injuries and for the most

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Speaker 1: part doesn't have any sort of big glaring like ooh

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Speaker 1: that part of his body is likely to break down

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Speaker 1: this season, So I think he's a little bit safer

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Speaker 1: that and then another part of it is the motivation

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Speaker 1: element with him being involved in the Luka Danchitz trade,

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Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a little bit. But I

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Speaker 1: think it's been a combination of three factors that have

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Speaker 1: led to Anthony Davis's health issues. First of all, luck,

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Speaker 1: like it or not, there is some kind of ethereal

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Speaker 1: injury luck factor that's at play that affects all athletes.

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Speaker 1: Some dudes just break down more, and it's not because

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Speaker 1: of anything they're doing. It's just something that exists there,

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Speaker 1: that injury prone factor, and AD is certainly one of

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Speaker 1: those dudes who just happens to get hurt more than

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Speaker 1: some of his peers. Secondly, conditioning, AD deserves some of

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Speaker 1: the blame with respect to his injury history because it's

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Speaker 1: been widely reported that, especially in the few years after

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Speaker 1: they won the title, AD would show up to camp

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Speaker 1: out of shape, it would take long stretches of the

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Speaker 1: summer off, and it led to a situation where he

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Speaker 1: wasn't as well conditioned to start seasons as some of

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Speaker 1: his peers at the top of the league, and that

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Speaker 1: certainly didn't help matters with his health. Right if you

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Speaker 1: look at it as like a spectrum of possible outcomes

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Speaker 1: within the regard or within the range of his injury

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Speaker 1: prone nature. He's been tilting more towards the injured size

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Speaker 1: a side of it in large part, I shouldn't say,

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Speaker 1: in large part partially because of the fact that he

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Speaker 1: didn't come into these seasons in as good as shape

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Speaker 1: as he could have come in. Lastly, he put on

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Speaker 1: an insane amount of muscle. This is a concept we're

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Speaker 1: going to talk a lot about today with Ad, which

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Speaker 1: I thought was a miscalculation on his part in terms

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Speaker 1: of his development. The reason why is it flat out

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Speaker 1: came at the expense of his foot speed. We've all

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Speaker 1: seen the videos. When a video pops up of Anthony

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Speaker 1: Davis playing basketball in that twenty twenty season, doesn't even

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Speaker 1: look like the same guy. He looks considerably thinner, He

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Speaker 1: was moving considerably better, and it made him a more

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Speaker 1: dynamic player in a bunch of different ways. AD got

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Speaker 1: shoved around in a couple of matchups, especially when he

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Speaker 1: was playing center during that phase of his career, in

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Speaker 1: that twenty twenty twenty twenty one stage, and so he

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Speaker 1: decided he needed to bulk up, and I thought it

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Speaker 1: was a classic example of over indexing on addressing a

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Speaker 1: weakness rather than leaning into your strengths. That's not to

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Speaker 1: say that you don't want to address your weakness, as

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Speaker 1: certainly Ad should have put on some muscle, as every

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Speaker 1: super thin player that comes into the league should. As

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Speaker 1: we talk about Victor wemb Minyama, he'll face a similar

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Speaker 1: decision in his career how much should he bulk up.

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Speaker 1: Certainly needs to bulk up some, but he doesn't want

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Speaker 1: to bulk up so much that it comes at the

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Speaker 1: expense of his speed, which is the thing at his

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Speaker 1: size that makes him such a transcendently great athlete. And

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Speaker 1: what happened was is eighty's newfound muscle mass really wasn't

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Speaker 1: helping him win as many physical battles as you'd think.

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Speaker 1: Basketball is every bit is much about leverage and angles

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Speaker 1: as it is about just pure strength and muscle mass.

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Speaker 1: This is a big part of why I've been gravitating

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Speaker 1: towards those like shorter, stockier wings over some of the longer,

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Speaker 1: lankier wings, because it doesn't really like length is of

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Speaker 1: the highest factor at the rim. It certainly helps on

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Speaker 1: the perimeter when you're contesting shots I don't want to

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Speaker 1: pretend it doesn't, but it has its largest impact on

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Speaker 1: the game at the rim. And if you can win

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Speaker 1: battles on the ground as a stocky athlete on the perimeter,

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Speaker 1: that can prevent guys from even getting past you. That

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Speaker 1: carries a lot of value in the league and prevents

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Speaker 1: some of that length at the rim from being as

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Speaker 1: much of a factor. That's why I gravitate towards some

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Speaker 1: of those shorter, stockier wings, right, And that's the thing.

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Speaker 1: Like eighty put on all this muscle, and then he

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Speaker 1: still in the last few years would get bullied by

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Speaker 1: jokicch and bullied by Sabonis at times, although he won

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Speaker 1: that battle a couple times last year. Or like even

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Speaker 1: guys like use of Nrkic sometimes would bury him on

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Speaker 1: the offensive glass. Zubats gave him a lot of issues

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Speaker 1: on the offensive glass. And then the problem was is

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Speaker 1: even though he had all this muscle and he's still

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Speaker 1: kind of struggling with some of these bigger centers, he

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Speaker 1: also at the same time was not as capable of

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Speaker 1: punishing those guys with his speed because he wasn't as

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Speaker 1: fast as he used to be, and he lost a

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Speaker 1: lot of that in the pursuit of that muscle mass,

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Speaker 1: and I mean you got to factor that in with

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Speaker 1: the injuries as well, Like it made him heavier, and

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Speaker 1: if you're heavier, your lower body's going to struggle to

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Speaker 1: hold up under the wear and tear of moving your

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Speaker 1: body around. And so really, as we zoom out, the

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Speaker 1: injuries have been the thing that has prevented Ad from

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Speaker 1: reaching his individual ceiling, his ultimate potential, which was like

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Speaker 1: there's a version of AD's career where he's healthier and

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Speaker 1: he's thinner, and he holds up more, which allows him

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Speaker 1: to be in the gym more, which allows him to

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Speaker 1: develop more in terms of his skill set, which allows

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Speaker 1: him to build more of a rhythm in the season

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Speaker 1: and develop into something closer to the Yahnesses of the

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Speaker 1: world and the hyper versatile bigs that ranked above him

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Speaker 1: on this list that Joel emb when he was healthy,

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Speaker 1: for example, there's a version of eighty's career where he

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Speaker 1: had better health luck, and he too took a different

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Speaker 1: approach in terms of how he built his body, and

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Speaker 1: maybe he was a more skilled player that reached higher heights.

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Speaker 1: But I do think all of those factors played a

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Speaker 1: I have him in the top ten, ahead of guys

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Speaker 1: see DKG dot co, slash audio. I'm obviously a huge

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Speaker 1: believer in Anthony Davis's impact on basketball games. That goes

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Speaker 1: without saying. Anybody who's listened to the show over the

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Speaker 1: last few years knows I'm a huge believer in eighty,

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Speaker 1: but it also extends into what I believe will be

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Speaker 1: a revenge campaign from him. This year, both Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: and Luka Doncic will be ranked on this list higher,

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Speaker 1: much higher than what their previous seasons justify. Ad has

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Speaker 1: no case to be a top ten player based solely

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Speaker 1: on last season, and Luka Doncic has no case to

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Speaker 1: be a top five player based solely on last season.

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Speaker 1: But we've already seen a completely different looking Luca in

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Speaker 1: a game with Salave against Germany. There were three moves

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Speaker 1: in particular, a euro step, a move driving a close out,

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Speaker 1: and there was one more. I can't remember exactly what

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Speaker 1: it was. I think it was just like a jab

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Speaker 1: step behind the back, dribble off the right wing in

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Speaker 1: the first half. But he had three moves in that

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Speaker 1: game where I was like, that's a different guy. He's

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Speaker 1: moving at a completely different speed than he moved in

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Speaker 1: the past. Why Because he got embarrassed by the maps,

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Speaker 1: completely embarrassed by the maps, and he's super pissed off,

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Speaker 1: and he lost a bunch of weight and now he's

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Speaker 1: on a mission to prove everybody wrong. And as we're

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Speaker 1: looking towards next season, I'm factoring that in same goes

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Speaker 1: for Ad, AD was similarly embarrassed. He was basically shipped

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Speaker 1: off as trade filler in the dead of night. It

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Speaker 1: was unprecedented for a Lakers star. It's unprecedented in the

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Speaker 1: entire NBA. It was the craziest trade in the history

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Speaker 1: of the MBA. How often do you see a superstar,

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Speaker 1: not DeMar Derozen getting traded for Kawhi, but a superstar

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Speaker 1: that gets moved in person of a better player in

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Speaker 1: his prime because the team wanted the even better player.

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Speaker 1: It's so rare, and so Ad has been similarly embarrassed.

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Speaker 1: I think he wants to prove everyone wrong. I do

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Speaker 1: think we will see Ad come into training camp in

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Speaker 1: great shape relative to previous seasons from him, which I

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Speaker 1: think will lead to him having a healthier season by

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Speaker 1: his standards, which I think will have him in better

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Speaker 1: rhythm in most of these games, which will allow him

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Speaker 1: to show more of his offensive upside, which we're going

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Speaker 1: to talk about in a bit. That's really what separated

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Speaker 1: him from that top tier. When Ad is a reliable

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Speaker 1: twenty eight point per game score, the guy that you

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Speaker 1: saw in the bubble, that guy's a top tier superstar.

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Speaker 1: When he's not. When he's in the low twenties and

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Speaker 1: he's more inconsistent offensively, that's when he's more of that

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Speaker 1: second tier star like we have in this particular list.

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Speaker 1: And so I actually look at AD and the reason

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Speaker 1: why I put him at ten is I think we

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Speaker 1: are going to get one of the better seasons from

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Speaker 1: AD out of this phase of his prime. It's a

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Speaker 1: big part of why I ranked him where I ranked him. Now,

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Speaker 1: let's talk about AD as a basketball player. Rather than

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Speaker 1: looking at his injury history and in the big picture,

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Speaker 1: let's zoom in on his basketball traits and what sets

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Speaker 1: him apart from his peers. We have to start with

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Speaker 1: defense for AD, because that's his calling card. There's a

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Speaker 1: similar range of outcomes for AD as a defender centering

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Speaker 1: around his health. Because of his foot speed. Even the

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Speaker 1: lesser foot speed version of AD has a really high

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Speaker 1: floor as a perimeter defender. It's not the same guy

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Speaker 1: from New Orleans, not the same guy from like twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: but healthy Ad, even bigger, bulky, healthy Ad has real

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Speaker 1: footspeed on the perimeter relative to his position, which brings

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Speaker 1: a lot of upside. But as we talked about there's

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Speaker 1: like these banged up versions of Ad, like that second

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Speaker 1: chunk of last season with the Lakers or what you

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Speaker 1: saw with Dallas, where it's like that's a d but

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Speaker 1: he's clearly not moving very well even by his big

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Speaker 1: bulky standards. Right. But what's crazy with Ad, and it's

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Speaker 1: a big part of why I have him this high,

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Speaker 1: is even lumbering Ad, even big bulky Ad that's out

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Speaker 1: of shape and is just coming back from an injury.

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00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:28,479
Speaker 1: Even that guy has an incredibly high floor as a

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Speaker 1: defensive player, and it starts with the shot blocking. Has

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00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,120
Speaker 1: a standing reach over nine feet, he has good leaping ability,

336
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:40,160
Speaker 1: and he has outrageous natural defensive instincts. He can anticipate

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00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:42,240
Speaker 1: what offensive players are going to do around the rim,

338
00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,040
Speaker 1: guessing release points where they're going for layups. And as

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00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:48,760
Speaker 1: a result, even while constantly battling injury issues for the

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00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:52,160
Speaker 1: last five years and carrying all that extra weight, even

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00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,520
Speaker 1: with that, he still averaged two point one blocks per

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00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,879
Speaker 1: game over that five year span that we were referencing earlier.

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00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:04,040
Speaker 1: He was consistently banged up. Now, as we know, the younger,

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00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:08,359
Speaker 1: faster AD averaged two point five blocks per game for

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00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:11,639
Speaker 1: the seven seasons previous. Obviously, he can get to a

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00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:14,680
Speaker 1: higher level there. Even when he's healthy in rhythm, When

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00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:17,240
Speaker 1: he plays game after game after game after game, and

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Speaker 1: he drops some of the excess weight he's carrying and

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Speaker 1: he's in good shape, he can go on runs. He

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Speaker 1: had a stretch five games last year with the Lakers

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00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:27,080
Speaker 1: where he averaged three point six blocks per game over

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00:18:27,119 --> 00:18:29,760
Speaker 1: a five game stretch. He can still get there. But

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00:18:29,840 --> 00:18:34,800
Speaker 1: the point is his floor is an outrageously good shot

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00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,080
Speaker 1: blocker and rim protector. He does it without committing fouls.

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00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:41,080
Speaker 1: He does it without giving up too many unnecessary offensive

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Speaker 1: rebounds by chasing stupid shots that he has no chance

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00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:48,879
Speaker 1: of blocking. He is a rock solid, foundational rim protector

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Speaker 1: in this league, even when he's banged up. He's also

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00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:57,720
Speaker 1: an excellent defensive rebounder, a career eleven rebounds per game

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00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:01,920
Speaker 1: in twelve point three rebouls game. Over his last three seasons,

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00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:05,960
Speaker 1: he led the entire league in rebounding in twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 1: He was third in rebounding in twenty twenty four, and

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Speaker 1: even the banged up version of Anthony Davis last year

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00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:18,000
Speaker 1: was seventh in overall rebounding. He has had occasional issues

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00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:22,159
Speaker 1: giving up certain types of offensive rebounds on like Duccans

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Speaker 1: to certain types of centers, so guys like Zubat's so

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Speaker 1: Bonis yokicch even Nurkic sometimes like we talked about, But

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Speaker 1: even factoring in that down mark, there's no way to

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Speaker 1: look at Anthony Davis as anything other than a monster

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Speaker 1: rebounder and one of the very best rebounders in the

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Speaker 1: entire NBA. And that's part of the appeal for a

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Speaker 1: player like Anthony Davis on a list like this, his

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Speaker 1: floor no matter what Dallas is gonna get, even if

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Speaker 1: he's banged up and only plays fifty games. For fifty games,

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Speaker 1: they're going to get a rock solid defensive anchor, a

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Speaker 1: guy who can protect the rim at an elite level

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Speaker 1: and rebound at an an elite level. And when you

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Speaker 1: can do those two things, it just makes it so

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00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,040
Speaker 1: much easier for a basketball team to build around that

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Speaker 1: and to function around that. We used to talk about

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Speaker 1: this for eighties bad games, right like even the slower moving,

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00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:19,000
Speaker 1: banged up version of AD. He'd have these like bad

383
00:20:19,040 --> 00:20:23,640
Speaker 1: games where he'd have twelve points, fourteen rebounds, and three blocks,

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00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 1: and people would rightfully complain that, like, yeah, that inconsistently inconsistency,

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00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:32,320
Speaker 1: especially on offense, is what would separate him from guys

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00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:35,040
Speaker 1: like Yannis, And that would be fair. If you're comparing

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00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:37,679
Speaker 1: him to Giannis, you're gonna frequently run into things that

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00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:40,800
Speaker 1: are frustrating. I'm not going to argue against that. But

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Speaker 1: in those games, he was still doing so much dirty work,

390
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:48,480
Speaker 1: like he'd have twelve, fourteen and three, and people would

391
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:51,639
Speaker 1: be complaining and like to quote Pete Zayas and again,

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00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,200
Speaker 1: if you're a Lakers fan, I think Pete and Darius

393
00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: have the best team specific Lakers podcast. You guys got

394
00:20:57,640 --> 00:20:59,800
Speaker 1: to check it out. Pete taught me so much about

395
00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:02,119
Speaker 1: what I know about the modern NBA, and I just

396
00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:03,760
Speaker 1: think he's awesome. You guys have to go check out.

397
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,400
Speaker 1: It's a Laker film room podcast. But Pete, you would

398
00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:10,639
Speaker 1: always say, like everyone's yelling at Ad when he's trying

399
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,320
Speaker 1: to move the couch by himself, and it's like, how

400
00:21:13,359 --> 00:21:16,239
Speaker 1: about we help him move the couch, and then we

401
00:21:16,280 --> 00:21:19,320
Speaker 1: start complaining about whatever else he's doing, And it's the truth.

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00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 1: Like Ad had to carry such an insanely heavy load

403
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:26,800
Speaker 1: as a defensive player and as a rebounder for that

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00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:29,640
Speaker 1: Lakers team. You know, like we're going to talk about

405
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:32,320
Speaker 1: him overall as a ceiling as a defensive player. But

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00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:34,359
Speaker 1: like a lot of times people will say, like, oh, well,

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00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,320
Speaker 1: Ad doesn't have these accolades, he doesn't have the Defensive

408
00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,280
Speaker 1: Player of the Year, the racked up first Team All Defensivewards,

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00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:41,840
Speaker 1: and all this kind of stuff. And you want to

410
00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,440
Speaker 1: know why. It's because people for years have had their

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00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,920
Speaker 1: brains broken by the idea of basketball being a team sport.

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00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:53,520
Speaker 1: It is a team sport, and the Lakers were consistently

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00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:58,240
Speaker 1: fielding rosters utterly devoid of defensive talent, where Ad is

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00:21:58,480 --> 00:22:01,119
Speaker 1: carrying everything on that end of the floor. And we

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00:22:01,160 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 1: talk about it all the time, the speed with which

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00:22:04,359 --> 00:22:07,080
Speaker 1: a dribble penetrator gets past his man. If it's a

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00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:11,879
Speaker 1: straight lines, straight line, sprinting drive, it breaks any defense,

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00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:16,880
Speaker 1: let alone a defense that's anchored by any elite defensive

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Speaker 1: player like Anthony Davis. The Lakers were a trash defense

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Speaker 1: and they were still hitting mediocre, you know, in that

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00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,400
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen to twenty four range of defensive ratings

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Speaker 1: because Anthony Davis was anchoring everything on that end of

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Speaker 1: the floor. Their second best defender was like an old

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Speaker 1: Lebron who, as we all know, especially when he doesn't

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Speaker 1: believe a team can win the title, will take some

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00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:41,679
Speaker 1: time off on that end of the floor in the

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00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:47,520
Speaker 1: regular season. I think AD is a grossly underappreciated defensive

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Speaker 1: player overall. It's a big part of why I have

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Speaker 1: him so much higher on this list than many people will.

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Speaker 1: Everything we just discussed is AD's floor as a defensive player. Elite,

431
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 1: top tier in protector, elite top tier rebounder. That's the floor.

432
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:04,919
Speaker 1: The ceiling for AD as a defensive player is the

433
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,440
Speaker 1: best defensive player in the NBA, at least before Victor

434
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 1: wemen Yama came around. Like, I'm gonna reference non Wemby

435
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:13,199
Speaker 1: a few times here because he has come in and

436
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:15,920
Speaker 1: broken everything. But as you guys have noticed, we haven't

437
00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:17,800
Speaker 1: even gotten to Wemby yet on this list. I'm a

438
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:20,479
Speaker 1: huge believer in what Victor wm Minyama can do, but

439
00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 1: I believe before Wemby that the healthy, in shape Anthony

440
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,000
Speaker 1: Davis was the best defensive player in basketball. He was

441
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 1: a frightening rim protector that would break offenses. Like even

442
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:33,719
Speaker 1: just last year, like I talked about, he had a

443
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:36,360
Speaker 1: five game stretch towards the beginning of the year when

444
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:38,600
Speaker 1: he was healthy and in shape, where he averaged three

445
00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 1: point six blocks per game. That's outrageous. But he'd also

446
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,960
Speaker 1: bring crazy scheme versatility, and this is what sets him apart.

447
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:48,639
Speaker 1: There are a lot of guys like Joel Embiid or

448
00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:51,399
Speaker 1: great rim protectors when they can sit back and protect

449
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:53,600
Speaker 1: the basket or sit in a deeper drop coverage, but

450
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:55,240
Speaker 1: as soon as you ask them to do anything else,

451
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:59,680
Speaker 1: it falls apart. Like you know, I think Game seven

452
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:01,879
Speaker 1: in that playoff series against the Celtics, where he's just

453
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 1: getting pulled out to the perimeter and just cooked repeatedly,

454
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 1: over and over again by Jason Tatum. With ad you

455
00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,320
Speaker 1: could ask him to be a deep drop coverage big

456
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 1: and he'd crush at that. But you could also ask

457
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 1: him to come up to the level and contest pull

458
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,560
Speaker 1: up shooters or as guys are coming downhill, reaching in

459
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:21,360
Speaker 1: on the on the guard as he's working downhill. He's

460
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:24,160
Speaker 1: always been a high steels guy. He had sixteen games

461
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: last year with multiple steals. But again he's also an

462
00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:31,680
Speaker 1: awesome switching big. Maybe not as good as a guy

463
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:35,320
Speaker 1: like bam At a bio but near that level and

464
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: in conjunction with his A plus plus plus rim protection.

465
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:41,680
Speaker 1: For a while there before Wemby came around, I thought

466
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:43,800
Speaker 1: healthy Ad was the best defensive player in the world.

467
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:47,359
Speaker 1: I thought the twenty twenty three series against Golden State

468
00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 1: was the classic example of how even in this big,

469
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:56,280
Speaker 1: bulky version of Ad, when he's healthy, is the best

470
00:24:56,359 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: non wenbe defender in the world. He can completely stifled

471
00:25:00,960 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: Golden State's offense to the point where every single decision

472
00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:07,920
Speaker 1: that Steve Kerr made, every lineup decision, every floor geometry decision,

473
00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:11,960
Speaker 1: everything Steve Kerr was doing was geared around getting Anthony

474
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,960
Speaker 1: Davis away from the action and away from the rim.

475
00:25:16,200 --> 00:25:18,520
Speaker 1: And then, in the pivotal moment of the series in

476
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 1: Game four, when Steph was still causing so many problems

477
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 1: for the Laker defense with what he was doing in

478
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: pick and roll, Anthony Davis at the end of that

479
00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:32,920
Speaker 1: game twice switched the screen, got onto Steph and got

480
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,960
Speaker 1: two key stops. He forced him into an extremely difficult

481
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,199
Speaker 1: one legged fade away from the mid range and a

482
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,960
Speaker 1: super deep three because Steph on the second look there

483
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,200
Speaker 1: was like, I'm not even gonna try to go around

484
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:47,200
Speaker 1: this guy, I'm just going to pull from out here,

485
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 1: and it was like a thirty footer that he ended

486
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:53,600
Speaker 1: up missing. That was the differentiator. Steve Kerr kept trying

487
00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:57,639
Speaker 1: stuff and Ad just literally had a defensive answer for

488
00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 1: everything they did, even Steph on any island. And so

489
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:03,960
Speaker 1: that's a big part of why I have Ad at

490
00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:08,160
Speaker 1: ten this year. Even with his health variants, he's going

491
00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,600
Speaker 1: to be one of the top two or three defense

492
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:13,960
Speaker 1: and rebounding foundations in the entire NBA, and the high

493
00:26:14,119 --> 00:26:17,479
Speaker 1: end is potentially the best defender in basketball other than

494
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:22,560
Speaker 1: Victor Weinmanyam. That's an extremely high floor for a guy

495
00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,920
Speaker 1: before we even get to the offensive end. And then

496
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,359
Speaker 1: on the offensive end, while he can be frustrating and

497
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:33,920
Speaker 1: inconsistent as an on ball player, he's an excellent play finisher,

498
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: which makes him on every single night a very useful

499
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: offensive player. Again, twenty five points per game last year

500
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,480
Speaker 1: on fifty nine per century shooting, that's nothing to roll

501
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,600
Speaker 1: your eyes at. He had three forty point games, eleven

502
00:26:46,680 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 1: thirty five point games, and nineteen to thirty point games.

503
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,960
Speaker 1: He was a super efficient role man in ball screens

504
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:55,199
Speaker 1: on one hundred and ninety reps as a Laker in

505
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 1: ball screens, he got one point two to three points

506
00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:02,520
Speaker 1: per possession, which is all. He'shot forty two percent pick

507
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:04,879
Speaker 1: and pop threes. This is an interesting idea. It's something

508
00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:06,560
Speaker 1: I wish the Lakers would have used more. It was

509
00:27:06,600 --> 00:27:08,920
Speaker 1: better for their spacing as well. Eighty is not a

510
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: good jump shooter, but for whatever reason, there's something about

511
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:13,280
Speaker 1: the rhythm of pick and pop, and a lot of

512
00:27:13,280 --> 00:27:15,359
Speaker 1: it could be just how open he would get, but

513
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,159
Speaker 1: there was like a rhythm for him with pick and

514
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 1: pop where he shot well out of it. He was

515
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 1: fifteen for thirty six last year on pick and pop threes.

516
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: He was also excellent on floaters fifty two percent last year.

517
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: And then he's a ridiculous vertical spacing threat. He's got

518
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 1: magnet hands. He catches everything with nine foot standing reach

519
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 1: and plenty of mobility even at his larger size to

520
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:38,720
Speaker 1: finish everything above the rim. So he was flat out

521
00:27:38,840 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: just an awesome pick and roll threat as the screener

522
00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:44,480
Speaker 1: last year. He was also a solid post player. Was

523
00:27:44,560 --> 00:27:46,880
Speaker 1: little down year over year last year, just one point

524
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:49,639
Speaker 1: zero four points per possession including passes, which is just

525
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,920
Speaker 1: above average. Nothing to write home about, but above average.

526
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 1: The previous year, though he was very good when he

527
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,919
Speaker 1: was healthier. He was one point zero nine points per

528
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,159
Speaker 1: possession including passes out of the post, which is the

529
00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 1: seventy first percentile, shoots over fifty percent on hook shots.

530
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:06,760
Speaker 1: That's the thing with ads above fifty percent on both

531
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:09,159
Speaker 1: hook shots and floaters, not yokic territory, he's going to

532
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,919
Speaker 1: be up over sixty percent on those. But Ad among

533
00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: biggs in the NBA is as good as short range

534
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 1: finisher as you'll find outside of the yokch types in

535
00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,040
Speaker 1: the league. It was mainly a passing issue that kept

536
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: him from really reaching his lead his ceiling as a

537
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 1: post player in twenty twenty four when he shot out

538
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 1: of the post again. That was the year that he

539
00:28:29,359 --> 00:28:31,600
Speaker 1: played super well and got one point zero nine points

540
00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: per possession. In twenty twenty four, he had a score

541
00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,160
Speaker 1: percentage when he'd shoot out of the post of fifty

542
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: four percent, meaning if you toss the ball to Ad

543
00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:43,520
Speaker 1: and he was able to get a shot up, he

544
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:45,760
Speaker 1: was going to score well over half the time. It

545
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:49,720
Speaker 1: was a super reliable play type. But over the years,

546
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:52,560
Speaker 1: even though he made some slight improvements as a passer,

547
00:28:53,160 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 1: he never got good enough at it to become a

548
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: guy that you could just lean on for high, high

549
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: volume out of the post, the way you could with

550
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:03,520
Speaker 1: the guy like Embiid, who is so good at scoring

551
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: out of the post that even his playmaking issues didn't

552
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 1: matter as much. And a guy like Jokic's obviously one

553
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 1: of the best post players to ever touch the floor. Right,

554
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,600
Speaker 1: there was just a tier. The eighty was clearly a

555
00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: tier below because he can never quite figure out the

556
00:29:16,800 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: passing element of it to make his scoring ability worth

557
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 1: it to be a super high volume post up player.

558
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:25,200
Speaker 1: He always just seemed to get spooked by double teams.

559
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:27,000
Speaker 1: The big thing I would always talk about is it

560
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 1: would look like he was trying to get rid of

561
00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:30,920
Speaker 1: the ball rather than trying to find the kill pass.

562
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: Like he'd catch the ball out of a double team

563
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: in the post and he would dribble out and throw

564
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: to a guy who's being guarded by throwing an over

565
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 1: the top pass just to like get rid of the ball,

566
00:29:41,200 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 1: and he'd throw the pass to a guy who's thirty

567
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: thirty five feet from the rim. Whereas, like you watch

568
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,720
Speaker 1: the best post players in the league, they work aggressively

569
00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,240
Speaker 1: into the double and try to pass through the defense

570
00:29:51,280 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: to the weak side where there's usually a wide open

571
00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:56,560
Speaker 1: player or a wide open cutter. They make the kill pass.

572
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: The pass that make it makes it so that you

573
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 1: cannot double him. That was the thing that Ady never

574
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,120
Speaker 1: was quite able to figure out, and so because of that,

575
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:07,240
Speaker 1: because he was a little sketchy as a ball handler overall,

576
00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: it just it just never amounted to a legitimate offensive

577
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,320
Speaker 1: engine type of player the way Joel Embiid was able

578
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 1: to get or the way that nikolea Jokic was able

579
00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:19,840
Speaker 1: to get. That really is the differentiator for Anthony Davis

580
00:30:19,840 --> 00:30:22,600
Speaker 1: between him as a second tier star in the top

581
00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 1: tier stars at the top of the league. The second

582
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: piece of it was the jump shot. The jump shot

583
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,040
Speaker 1: just never came around to what it was in twenty twenty.

584
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: Like we talked about, he shot well on picking pops,

585
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: but overall last year he was a zero point nine

586
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,960
Speaker 1: points per shot on jump shots. He's okay from short

587
00:30:38,040 --> 00:30:41,719
Speaker 1: range forty nine percent inside of seventeen feet and that's fine,

588
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 1: but that's notably still under a point per shot, and

589
00:30:46,160 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: he shot just forty three percent on long twos outside

590
00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,360
Speaker 1: of seventeen feet, which is only zero point eighty six

591
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 1: points per shot, and he was below thirty percent from three,

592
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:56,960
Speaker 1: so even from three he was below a point per shot.

593
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: So again like him not developing as either a great

594
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: jump shooter or an elite ball handler playmaker, because like Jannis,

595
00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:07,160
Speaker 1: never became an elite jump shooter, but Jannis has become

596
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 1: an elite ball handler playmaker as a monster frontcourt defensive weapon,

597
00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:14,000
Speaker 1: and that is what allowed Giannis to become like a

598
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 1: perennial MVP candidate in the way that Anthony Davis has

599
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 1: not been able to figure out. If he could have

600
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:22,560
Speaker 1: become an elite jump shooter, you know, a la Dirk Noovisky,

601
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:24,960
Speaker 1: that becomes a thing that can carry him up to

602
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:26,400
Speaker 1: he didn't, you wouldn't even need to be as good

603
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 1: as Dirk just if he became an elite jump shooter

604
00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:32,800
Speaker 1: relative to most play finishers, just like a knockdown pick

605
00:31:32,840 --> 00:31:35,120
Speaker 1: and pop big or something like that, he could have

606
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 1: been a guy that could have entered into that top

607
00:31:37,360 --> 00:31:39,840
Speaker 1: tier because of how gifted he was defensively. If he

608
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 1: could have just figured out how to become a top

609
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 1: not a top tier, but a very good on the

610
00:31:45,040 --> 00:31:48,200
Speaker 1: ballplayer as a ball handler playmaker, he could have entered

611
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 1: into that tier, but he ended up being neither. And

612
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:52,880
Speaker 1: again you can factor in injuries into that equation. Equation,

613
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: I think it's worth mentioning like Ad has never really

614
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:57,680
Speaker 1: been able to work on his game as much as

615
00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,880
Speaker 1: some of his peers because he's been banged up. That

616
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 1: has been what's kept him from entering into that superstar

617
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 1: tier outside of the twenty twenty season. In that twenty

618
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 1: twenty season, when he shot like Kevin Freakin Durant in

619
00:32:08,800 --> 00:32:11,320
Speaker 1: the bubble, I had him as the fourth best player

620
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: in the world, and I think that was like the

621
00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:15,560
Speaker 1: absolute peak. It was a skinnier version of AD that

622
00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:19,200
Speaker 1: was a better defensive player and just a ridiculous shot

623
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,560
Speaker 1: maker out of the high post in ISO situations and

624
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: it just and he shot really well from three too,

625
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: famously hit a game winning three against the Denver Nuggets

626
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 1: in that Western Conference final series. So he was just

627
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 1: another level of a jump shooter. That's kind of an

628
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 1: example of what I was talking about, like jump shooting

629
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 1: AD plus elite defense, top tier superstar. If he could

630
00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,440
Speaker 1: have figured out the playmaking piece, because he has shot

631
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 1: making out of the post, he could have got there.

632
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 1: But he just never was able to figure those pieces out.

633
00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:49,239
Speaker 1: But still, when you look at the big picture, you

634
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 1: can basically bank on Ad to give you at least

635
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: twenty five and twelve next year, and you can bank

636
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,360
Speaker 1: on him being an excellent defensive, rebounder and rim protector.

637
00:32:58,640 --> 00:33:02,360
Speaker 1: That's the floor. What a strong foundation for the rest

638
00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: of your team to build on. And he's still a

639
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 1: good post up threat and a top tier rollman weapon

640
00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 1: that you can build around. On offense. On any given night,

641
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,840
Speaker 1: he can explode for forty points. And that's the low end.

642
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 1: And I think there's a range of potential outcomes here

643
00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 1: where he hits higher because of his motivation level, and

644
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:23,560
Speaker 1: I think we're going to get there. So for me,

645
00:33:23,640 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 1: I had Anthony Davis at number ten this year. Now,

646
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,120
Speaker 1: before we move on to the Chris Paul Kyrie debate,

647
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,920
Speaker 1: I did want to give a bonus AD topic regarding

648
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 1: him playing the power forward for the Dallas Mavericks. He's said.

649
00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:35,920
Speaker 1: I saw another quote just the other day of him

650
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:37,960
Speaker 1: talking about how he views himself as a power forward

651
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,240
Speaker 1: more than the center. And again, like I want to

652
00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:43,840
Speaker 1: start like this, I don't want to say that Ady

653
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,640
Speaker 1: can't play power forward. I actually think in the modern NBA,

654
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,160
Speaker 1: having two big looks is an important punch that you

655
00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,040
Speaker 1: can throw in certain situations. So for instance, like the

656
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:56,520
Speaker 1: Thunder being able to lean heavily into Hartenstein and Chat

657
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 1: in the Denver series was a huge part of how

658
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,120
Speaker 1: they were able to make things very difficult for Nicole Jokich.

659
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:04,719
Speaker 1: And so I think you should have that look. But

660
00:34:04,760 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 1: then as you can see, like then when the Thunder

661
00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 1: got into later playoff rounds, they went away from the

662
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:11,080
Speaker 1: two big look like they didn't use it as much

663
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,799
Speaker 1: against the Pacers because the speed would have been an issue, right,

664
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:16,040
Speaker 1: And so like the point is is, like you want

665
00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 1: to have that as a punch, but it can't be

666
00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:19,880
Speaker 1: your like foundational thing that you try to do. And

667
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:21,960
Speaker 1: this is where I get a little concern about the

668
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: overall team construct of the Dallas Mavericks, especially with all

669
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,520
Speaker 1: the centers that they have on staff right now. The

670
00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 1: problem is Ad is fast, even big bulky Ad is

671
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:38,319
Speaker 1: fast for a center, but he's not fast compared to

672
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 1: power forwards. Old Lebron is a much better athlete than

673
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,200
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in terms of foot speed and quickness and

674
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: changing ends of the floor. Aaron Gordon in the Western Conference.

675
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 1: Like even Kevin Durant for the Houston Rockets moves better

676
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 1: than Anthony Davis does. Right, So, like at the five,

677
00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 1: his speed is an asset at the full, or his

678
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:05,040
Speaker 1: speed is a liability. Similarly, his offensive skill, his short

679
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:08,560
Speaker 1: range shot making, his ball handling ability at the five,

680
00:35:09,200 --> 00:35:13,560
Speaker 1: it's an asset. At the four, it's a liability. And

681
00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 1: one of the things that happens is is if you

682
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:17,879
Speaker 1: get him on the floor at the four, you start

683
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,800
Speaker 1: to dip below these kind of like mandatory minimums in

684
00:35:20,880 --> 00:35:24,480
Speaker 1: certain areas of skill set. You put ad at the

685
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: four next to a Derek Lively or Daniel Gafford, all

686
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:30,359
Speaker 1: of a sudden, your team doesn't really have much ball

687
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:33,440
Speaker 1: handling on the floor. You put Anthony Davis at the

688
00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:36,839
Speaker 1: four by a Derek Lively, all of a sudden, your

689
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: team doesn't have much jump shooting on the floor, all

690
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:43,440
Speaker 1: of a sudden, even just overall foot speed. Like we

691
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:46,480
Speaker 1: didn't talk about this earlier, but one of the few

692
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:49,120
Speaker 1: weaknesses Anthony Davis has on the defensive end is he

693
00:35:49,280 --> 00:35:52,160
Speaker 1: is not a good transition big. He falls on the

694
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,279
Speaker 1: ground a lot. He complains that the refs a lot,

695
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,480
Speaker 1: and he doesn't run back on defense. I've seen Biggs

696
00:35:57,480 --> 00:35:59,840
Speaker 1: beat Anthony Davis just literally by running him up and

697
00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: down on the floor. Like, even at the center position,

698
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 1: he can sometimes struggle as a changing ends type of

699
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:10,960
Speaker 1: floor runner, so like at the four, it can become

700
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: a serious problem. So again, I don't hate the idea

701
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:17,839
Speaker 1: of the MAVs having two big looks, and you could

702
00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:20,840
Speaker 1: even talk me into starting games that way, but to me,

703
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:25,399
Speaker 1: at least half and all of your at least half

704
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 1: of your total minutes and all of the clutch time,

705
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,959
Speaker 1: big picture moments asign from maybe against Denver, you're gonna

706
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 1: need Anthony Davis at center because same with Cooper Flag.

707
00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:43,520
Speaker 1: Cooper Flag has a ball handling skill, speed advantage against fours,

708
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: but he's gonna run into some issues against threes right away.

709
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:52,359
Speaker 1: In the NBA, he'll improve, But like Cooper Flag can

710
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:55,040
Speaker 1: handle the ball, but how much is this handling gonna

711
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,200
Speaker 1: be a factor if there's not a lot of surrounding

712
00:36:58,239 --> 00:37:02,440
Speaker 1: ball handling, Like like what if they end up starting

713
00:37:02,480 --> 00:37:04,440
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson, We'll see what ends up happening. But like

714
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:06,320
Speaker 1: Clay Thompson's not a guy who dribbles the ball a

715
00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:09,319
Speaker 1: lot you could run into some issues in terms of

716
00:37:09,360 --> 00:37:12,600
Speaker 1: your aggregate ball handling on the floor with Anthony Davis

717
00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 1: at the floor. It's just something to keep an eye

718
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:16,879
Speaker 1: on as we watch the MAVs next year. All before

719
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 1: we get out of here today, I want to spend

720
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:20,560
Speaker 1: a few minutes talking about Chris Paul versus Kyrie Irving.

721
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,719
Speaker 1: So this is an interesting debate because Kyrie Irving kind

722
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:32,879
Speaker 1: of has a stranglehold on basketball culture, and I don't

723
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:35,400
Speaker 1: think that's an accident. I think he's one of the

724
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:39,160
Speaker 1: top three or foremost aesthetically appealing basketball players I've ever watched.

725
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 1: He's just so much fun to watch when he's chaining

726
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:47,759
Speaker 1: together dribble combinations and he's showing outrageous footwork and some

727
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 1: of the wildest finishes I've ever seen. Yeah, every once

728
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 1: in a while, I'll see the clips from like Game

729
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,680
Speaker 1: five or Game seven, a Game seven in particular of

730
00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 1: the of the NBA Finals in two thousand and sixteen.

731
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: He had this play where he got it either got

732
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:04,480
Speaker 1: a defensive rebound or got outlet pass, and he threw

733
00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:07,440
Speaker 1: this like straight up wicked push ahead dribble that had

734
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:11,919
Speaker 1: this crazy, like voodoo backspin on it. Because it came

735
00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: out of his hands at like this sharp angle forward,

736
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:18,120
Speaker 1: hit the ground and then just bounced straight back up

737
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,279
Speaker 1: so that he could catch it on the run. And

738
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: he got into a euro or a high gather and

739
00:38:23,760 --> 00:38:28,720
Speaker 1: went like left hand way out wide while getting fouled,

740
00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,200
Speaker 1: like super high off the glass, and it just like

741
00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:33,720
Speaker 1: perfectly kissed off the glass and went into the basket,

742
00:38:33,719 --> 00:38:35,000
Speaker 1: and you're just like, oh my god, that was one

743
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,919
Speaker 1: of the craziest, most beautiful basketball players I've ever seen.

744
00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:43,040
Speaker 1: Like he has that certain aesthetic appeal that just has

745
00:38:43,080 --> 00:38:46,239
Speaker 1: the basketball culture and his stranglehold. He also has one

746
00:38:46,239 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 1: of the most iconic shots in NBA history on his

747
00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 1: resume with the step back three over Steph Curry to

748
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:54,839
Speaker 1: win the twenty sixteen finals. He's a champion, which Chris

749
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 1: Paul is not. Those are the things that I think

750
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: drive a lot of the momentum. Bed Kyrie Irving as

751
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:04,200
Speaker 1: a player who could be considered as better than Chris Paul.

752
00:39:04,360 --> 00:39:06,400
Speaker 1: But I think Chris Paul at his peak, was just

753
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:09,640
Speaker 1: a better basketball player than Kyrie Irving's did a lot

754
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,840
Speaker 1: of talk about defense. I think Kyrie Irving is actually

755
00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:16,960
Speaker 1: a little bit underrated as a defender famously in those stretches.

756
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:21,400
Speaker 1: If you remember, Kyrie defended well, chasing around screens and

757
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 1: staying attached to shooters, and he was never a guy

758
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:26,640
Speaker 1: that would be super focused over the course of regular seasons.

759
00:39:26,640 --> 00:39:29,359
Speaker 1: But I never felt like Kyrie was a substantial weak

760
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:31,840
Speaker 1: point on the defensive end of the floor when I

761
00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 1: was rooting for him during those years with the Cavaliers.

762
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:39,920
Speaker 1: So Chris Paul is a more decorated defender, and certainly

763
00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 1: in his prime, was a more committed regular season defender.

764
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 1: But to me, I'm not looking at the defensive end

765
00:39:45,760 --> 00:39:49,239
Speaker 1: as much of a differentiator between those two. To me,

766
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:53,360
Speaker 1: the difference is simply the archetype. Kyrie Irving is a

767
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:56,799
Speaker 1: score and one of the very best to do it,

768
00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,840
Speaker 1: but Chris Paul is a legitimate offense eve Ent. I

769
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:04,399
Speaker 1: think you see this sort of issue when you look

770
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:06,879
Speaker 1: at years like when Kyrie Irving was trying to lead

771
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,040
Speaker 1: those Boston Celtics teams, which in retrospect like that was

772
00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:12,600
Speaker 1: why he left Cleveland, if you guys remember, he kind

773
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 1: of wanted an opportunity to lead his own team, and

774
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:18,680
Speaker 1: when he got there, you find out pretty quickly that

775
00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:21,520
Speaker 1: I talk about this idea all the time. With respect

776
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 1: to scores versus offensive engines, the name of the game

777
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:27,359
Speaker 1: is not to generate thirty points on sixty percent through

778
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:31,479
Speaker 1: shooting for yourself. You got to generate. You're taking eighty

779
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 1: ninety shots in a game as a team, and you're

780
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 1: gonna be on the floor for call it eighty percent

781
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 1: of that. So you're you're gonna need to generate for

782
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:43,719
Speaker 1: your team, you know, sixty seventy shots, maybe not all

783
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 1: in points and assists, but an advantage creation. You're gonna

784
00:40:48,040 --> 00:40:50,799
Speaker 1: have your twenty five to thirty that you pour in

785
00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 1: as an on ball score for a guy like Chris

786
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,080
Speaker 1: Paul Moore, like in that you know, eighteen to twenty

787
00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:57,600
Speaker 1: four kind of range, although Chris Paul had big score games.

788
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 1: But then you're gonna have your assists like you're into

789
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: twelve times a game, or you spoon fed a guy

790
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 1: a wide open three or a cut which is going

791
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: to lead to a bucket. But for the offensive engine types,

792
00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: it's also the twenty to thirty to forty times a

793
00:41:12,080 --> 00:41:14,600
Speaker 1: game where you got into an action early in a

794
00:41:14,640 --> 00:41:17,200
Speaker 1: set and you made a read that got a guy

795
00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:20,360
Speaker 1: a close out or shifted the defense side to side

796
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:24,080
Speaker 1: or did something to generate an advantage that your team

797
00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:27,560
Speaker 1: then capitalized on with two or three additional sequences that

798
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:30,360
Speaker 1: led to an open shot. That's why I'm so I

799
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 1: gravitate so much towards offensive engines. They simply generate so

800
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:37,840
Speaker 1: much more offense for their team relative to what things

801
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:40,480
Speaker 1: look like in the box score. Like a guy like

802
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:44,720
Speaker 1: Tyrese Halliburton, he's gonna average, you know, sixteen seventeen points

803
00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 1: per game and you know, eleven twelve assists. Whatever it

804
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:49,000
Speaker 1: is that he puts up and it's not gonna look

805
00:41:49,120 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 1: like it manifests some great offensive output, but he generates

806
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,520
Speaker 1: so many advantages that the Pacers playoff for extended stretches

807
00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:58,400
Speaker 1: of each possession, and he gets into it early in

808
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 1: the possession that like, for whatever reason, when he's off

809
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:03,920
Speaker 1: the floor, the Pacers suddenly don't score it nearly as

810
00:42:03,920 --> 00:42:07,520
Speaker 1: effective a level. That is the value of it being

811
00:42:07,560 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 1: an offensive engine. With the guy like Kyrie Irving is

812
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:13,759
Speaker 1: a score, there's a certain level of variants. Yeah, he

813
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:16,440
Speaker 1: made all those day and pull up jump shots against

814
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:19,520
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors, and it was the reason that

815
00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 1: they were able to push over the top and win

816
00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 1: the title when he hit the shot against Steph Curry.

817
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:27,600
Speaker 1: But he also looked great for three rounds with the

818
00:42:27,640 --> 00:42:29,880
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks in twenty twenty four, and then what happened

819
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 1: against Boston. Suddenly he couldn't make those pull up jump shots.

820
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 1: They weren't going in. And by the way, that's he

821
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 1: was going against really good defenders who made it tougher.

822
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:42,319
Speaker 1: But we've seen Kyrie Irving hit really tough shots. There's

823
00:42:42,440 --> 00:42:46,120
Speaker 1: just a lot of variants. Specifically with tough shot making,

824
00:42:46,880 --> 00:42:50,439
Speaker 1: there's a heavy make miss factor, and sometimes they don't

825
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:53,400
Speaker 1: go in, and then when they don't go in, what's

826
00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:55,600
Speaker 1: your offensive value that you're bringing to the table. And

827
00:42:55,680 --> 00:42:59,640
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving was is a good passer, but he is

828
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:02,440
Speaker 1: not the type of offensive engine that a guy like

829
00:43:02,520 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: Chris Paul was. So you get into it, you get

830
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:08,840
Speaker 1: a little more complicated. It's like, Okay, well, Chris Paul's

831
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:10,359
Speaker 1: not good enough to win the title as your number

832
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:13,319
Speaker 1: one option. I'm not. I actually do believe that if

833
00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:16,080
Speaker 1: Chris Paul was on better teams when he was in

834
00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,399
Speaker 1: his prime, he would have had a really good chance. Now,

835
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 1: like the twenty twenty two with the Suns, he was

836
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: so old his body was breaking down at the end

837
00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 1: of the NBA Final series. But like, if you go

838
00:43:25,600 --> 00:43:30,200
Speaker 1: back to the mid twenty tens, if he was on

839
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,560
Speaker 1: one of the better rosters in the NBA, I absolutely

840
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 1: think Chris Paul was good enough to win the title.

841
00:43:35,280 --> 00:43:38,680
Speaker 1: But it didn't happen for whatever reason. Okay, Kyrie Irving

842
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:42,360
Speaker 1: did get one playing alongside the greatest basketball player ever,

843
00:43:44,320 --> 00:43:47,360
Speaker 1: it's not the same. And as we go to the

844
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:50,960
Speaker 1: number two piece, Yeah, I do think Kyrie Irving is

845
00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:53,959
Speaker 1: flat out an awesome option to have as your second

846
00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:57,920
Speaker 1: best player when you're alongside a superstar player that can

847
00:43:57,960 --> 00:44:00,480
Speaker 1: handle a lot of that like upside and terms of,

848
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,400
Speaker 1: you know, managing the load of offensive shot creation. But

849
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 1: like just look at it as the reverse for a

850
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,640
Speaker 1: Chris Paul. So he's a shot creator, so you wouldn't

851
00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:13,719
Speaker 1: want to pair him with another shot creator. I do

852
00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: think there were some diminishing returns when you put a

853
00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 1: guy like Chris Paul with a James Harden, or if

854
00:44:17,520 --> 00:44:19,680
Speaker 1: you were to put him with a Luka Doncic or

855
00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:21,880
Speaker 1: even a Lebron James, because they kind of do a

856
00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:23,920
Speaker 1: lot of the same things. We've talked a lot about that.

857
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 1: With the idea of the Lakers potentially trying to pair

858
00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:29,400
Speaker 1: Luca with Jokic, I just don't think that that's nearly

859
00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 1: as good a team as it looks like on paper

860
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:34,440
Speaker 1: because those skill sets overlap too much. So for a

861
00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,520
Speaker 1: guy like Chris Paul. If Kyrie Irving got to play

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00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 1: with Lebron James at the peak of his powers and

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00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:44,600
Speaker 1: get a title there, I do believe that if in

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00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:50,160
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen you swapped Russell Westbrook for Chris Paul, I

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00:44:50,200 --> 00:44:55,560
Speaker 1: think that Thunder team is absolutely a legitimate championship team.

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00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 1: Now would they have beat Lebron who knows? Would they

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00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:01,480
Speaker 1: have beat Steph who knows? But like I think, if

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00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 1: you paired CP three with Kevin Durant for six years

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00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 1: in the heart of their primes, I think they get

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00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 1: a title because you would be pairing Chris Paul's offensive

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00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:17,920
Speaker 1: engine nature with the tip of the spear scoring that

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00:45:18,040 --> 00:45:21,279
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant provides. So, yeah, Chris Paul didn't have a

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00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 1: title the way that Kyrie Irving does, and he doesn't

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00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 1: have the cultural resonance that a guy like Kyrie Irving does.

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00:45:27,840 --> 00:45:30,960
Speaker 1: And yeah, he's got a couple of tough black marks

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00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,319
Speaker 1: on his resume in terms of rough playoff moments, but

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00:45:33,360 --> 00:45:36,960
Speaker 1: so does Kyrie, and like, ultimately, when I look at it,

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00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:40,680
Speaker 1: I just think Chris Paul is a better basketball player

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00:45:40,680 --> 00:45:44,080
Speaker 1: than Kyrie Irving because they're more even as defenders than

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00:45:44,120 --> 00:45:47,400
Speaker 1: people think. But Chris Paul is much better at generating

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00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:50,799
Speaker 1: offense for his entire team than Kyrie Irving is, and

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00:45:50,800 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 1: that is an example of why I gravitate towards those

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00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 1: offensive engine types more than the scoring types. All right, guys,

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Speaker 1: it's all I have for today is always a sincerely

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00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 1: percent you got for supporting us and supporting the show.

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00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:04,839
Speaker 1: We will be back with number nine on Wednesday, as

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00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,240
Speaker 1: well as another one of these kind of debate topics

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Speaker 1: at the tail end. I will see you guys then