Speaker 1: Welcome to the Jason timp Podcast. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for taking time out of your day as usual
Speaker 1: to come hang out and talk some basketball with me. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited for this week. On Friday at I
Speaker 1: believe eleven o'clock California time, I have Tommy coming on
Speaker 1: and we're gonna do a season preview. That's what I'll
Speaker 1: give most of my thoughts about who I think is
Speaker 1: gonna win, which conference, you know, which players I think
Speaker 1: are gonna be you know, uh, set up for specific awards,
Speaker 1: and and just basically all of your typical prediction stuff
Speaker 1: for the NBA season. Like I said, Friday at about
Speaker 1: eleven o'clock for that one, Um, today, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be touching on this this whole fiasco with James Harden,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna be touching on this Kyrie thing
Speaker 1: with the media, and then a bunch of the stuff
Speaker 1: that Lebron talked about in his most recent podcast with
Speaker 1: r J and Channing on that road on the road
Speaker 1: trip in podcast, I thought he had a lot of
Speaker 1: interesting things to say, a lot of stuff that that
Speaker 1: we can really dive into. And then I had quite
Speaker 1: a few good questions um that were asked at the
Speaker 1: tweet that I sent out earlier today, which I'll respond
Speaker 1: to those as well. But again, thank you guys for
Speaker 1: jumping for jumping on and and hanging out for a
Speaker 1: little bit. Um. Let's get started with James Harden. So
Speaker 1: this James Harden fiasco is similar but different to a
Speaker 1: lot of the different star Power um you know flexes
Speaker 1: in the player empowerment movement here in the last ten years.
Speaker 1: It's similar in the sense that it's the same basic structure.
Speaker 1: Player with multiple years left on his contract decides that
Speaker 1: he no longer wants to play where he's playing, uh,
Speaker 1: privately declares that he wants to be traded, doesn't really
Speaker 1: say much publicly, and then privately releases a list of
Speaker 1: teams that he deems are uh, you know, satisfactory to him,
Speaker 1: even though in this particular case he doesn't have any leverage.
Speaker 1: And so what we've heard from woaeses that he wants
Speaker 1: to go to Brooklyn, and we know that he wants
Speaker 1: to go to Philly. The big difference between this one
Speaker 1: and the ones that we've seen elsewhere are that Harden
Speaker 1: has made his own dead and that's the hardest thing
Speaker 1: for me to try to sympathize with him on and
Speaker 1: for the record, I am one of the biggest hardened
Speaker 1: detractors that you'll meet on NBA, Twitter or really anywhere
Speaker 1: that you go to talk basketball. I don't like the
Speaker 1: guy I personally, I I basketball is very sacred to me.
Speaker 1: Basketball has not not just as a fan, not just
Speaker 1: as somebody wants who wants to watch the game. But
Speaker 1: basketball has done great things for me. It's paid for
Speaker 1: my school, it's it's prevented me from having massive amounts
Speaker 1: of college debt. It's opened doors for me that that
Speaker 1: have made my life easier, and I'm eternally rateful for that.
Speaker 1: And James Harden bastardizes basketball in my opinion, Like I've
Speaker 1: said on many times before, I think he commits basketball blasphemy.
Speaker 1: He does things that hurt the health of the game.
Speaker 1: And I think it's good that he has failed as
Speaker 1: often as he has because it prevents the things that
Speaker 1: he has done from becoming mainstream. I never have hidden
Speaker 1: from that. So it's important for us to, you know,
Speaker 1: start from there, so that everybody understands that where I
Speaker 1: come from in my individual bias in that regard. That said,
Speaker 1: even in within that lens, I still think what James
Speaker 1: Harden is doing here is different from what these other
Speaker 1: stars have done. If you look at Kawhi Leonard, you
Speaker 1: know that's the team he was drafted by, and you
Speaker 1: know he never really had a chance to be a
Speaker 1: free agent and choose where he wanted to go. He
Speaker 1: didn't like his role on that particular team. He didn't
Speaker 1: like the way the team was managing his injury. Even
Speaker 1: with Paul George, same exact thing. He had a private
Speaker 1: agreement with the upper management of Oklahoma City like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna resign here, but if I don't like it, like,
Speaker 1: let's work something out with the trade And in the
Speaker 1: okay See front office agreed with him on that. James
Speaker 1: Harden willingly signed his future into uh into the Houston
Speaker 1: Rockets organization at an extremely high salary, and he willingly
Speaker 1: committed to them. There was no expectation that he would
Speaker 1: want out in the middle of the contract. In addition
Speaker 1: to that, he has dictated the vast majority of their
Speaker 1: player movement le UHUM decisions over the last few years.
Speaker 1: It was him that decided that CP three wasn't a
Speaker 1: good fit. It was him who publicly went into a
Speaker 1: press conference after that season and said, I know what
Speaker 1: we need to fix. We need to and basically subtly
Speaker 1: hinted at not so subtly hinted at the fact that
Speaker 1: he wanted Chris Paul out of there. We now have
Speaker 1: heard after the fact that you know through back channels
Speaker 1: that Russell Westbrook was not happy with what he had
Speaker 1: going on in UH. In Houston, James Harden has made
Speaker 1: his own bed, and so from that, from that stame
Speaker 1: point really difficult to sympathize with his plight. So if
Speaker 1: I'm Houston, I'm sitting there and I'm saying I've got
Speaker 1: him under contract for two years, and you know that
Speaker 1: third year as a player option, that is such a
Speaker 1: massive number that regardless of where James Harden ends up,
Speaker 1: there's actually a pretty good chance that he ends up
Speaker 1: accepting that player option, especially given what we know with
Speaker 1: the stuff with China and the stuff with COVID in
Speaker 1: the way it's impacted the way the salary cap has
Speaker 1: gone up each year UH potentially moving forward. So the
Speaker 1: reality is is James Harden has no leverage and he's
Speaker 1: just throwing his he fit because he doesn't like the
Speaker 1: bed that he made for himself. And so from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: like I said this on Twitter the other day, you know,
Speaker 1: I feel a great deal of vindication from the last
Speaker 1: few years watching the way in which James Harden performed
Speaker 1: in the playoffs and the way in which his team
Speaker 1: fell short, because it justified the way I felt about
Speaker 1: him as a basketball player. My basketball related takes about
Speaker 1: James Harden, we're proven to be right based on those results.
Speaker 1: But this incident is an example. It's vindication for the
Speaker 1: people who didn't like the kind of guy that James
Speaker 1: Harden was. The reality is is the reason why he
Speaker 1: plays basketball the way he does is because of his personality.
Speaker 1: He is a guy that cares more about himself than
Speaker 1: the team. He is a guy that cares more about
Speaker 1: his own personal experience as a member of the Houston
Speaker 1: Rockets rather than that ultimate team goal. Now he's so
Speaker 1: good that he nearly accomplished the team goal. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to undercut his basketball successes. I'm just saying it's
Speaker 1: it's it's it's been refreshing for all of us who
Speaker 1: suspected that this was the kind of guy he is
Speaker 1: to see, you know, the comparison between the way he's
Speaker 1: handled this, in the way that Russell Westbrook has handled this,
Speaker 1: or the way that CP three has handled this, or
Speaker 1: the way that all of these other stars who have
Speaker 1: been put into circumstances that are less than ideal the
Speaker 1: way that they've chosen to handle their circumstance. And I
Speaker 1: think I think that, you know, I'm a big believer
Speaker 1: that people inevitably will tell on themselves. I think that
Speaker 1: if you're a certain type of person, you can put
Speaker 1: forward a an image for a certain amount of time,
Speaker 1: but inevitably you're going to reveal who you really are.
Speaker 1: And that's what James Harden is doing right now. But again,
Speaker 1: like that that that's just my opinion on the actual
Speaker 1: Harden saga in and of itself. The reality is that
Speaker 1: James Harden is a top ten player in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I think he I think I put him at eight
Speaker 1: in my list, so I had him above Yokich and
Speaker 1: um Dame I believe at nine and ten. And so
Speaker 1: the reality is this, here's a top ten player in
Speaker 1: the NBA who realistically can be had in a trade
Speaker 1: this season, and so it's time. If you're one of
Speaker 1: those teams who has never really had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: sign a star. If you're one of those teams that
Speaker 1: when big free agent money is available and big free
Speaker 1: agent classes are available, you're incapable of signing those players. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is the kind of guy that can be had,
Speaker 1: And so too. I think there's two my talk surrounding
Speaker 1: Brooklyn and Philadelphia as the inevitable trade destinations for James Harden,
Speaker 1: ignoring the fact that Houston's gonna trade if if you
Speaker 1: know anything about Tillman for Tita, if you know anything
Speaker 1: about this new general manager that's in the situation who
Speaker 1: would probably like to start fresh, They're not beholden to
Speaker 1: trade James Harden anywhere. They can trade him wherever they
Speaker 1: want to trade him, especially considering the fact that he's
Speaker 1: tied up for two probably three years. So from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: you've got to learn from the history of the NBA
Speaker 1: in the sense that risks are the only way to
Speaker 1: eventually accomplish your ultimate goal, and our last two champions
Speaker 1: are the best example of that. The Los Angeles Lakers
Speaker 1: traded away a great deal of draft control. The Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers traded away almost all of their young talent.
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Lakers traded all of that away for
Speaker 1: a player who had missed the playoffs five of the
Speaker 1: previous seven years, who had had some injury concerns, and
Speaker 1: you know, just in general was oh, he's only locked
Speaker 1: up for one year. You only had one of remaining
Speaker 1: on his contract before player options. So there was a risk.
Speaker 1: The Los Angeles Lakers took a risk trading for Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: and it paid off because what we've learned about NBA
Speaker 1: his in throughout NBA history is if you can put multiple,
Speaker 1: you know, top ten NBA players on the same team,
Speaker 1: you have a chance to win an NBA championship. And
Speaker 1: that's what happened. Go back a year further here we
Speaker 1: have Toronto. It's an even crazier risk when you factor
Speaker 1: in Kauai's situation. He hadn't played basketball in over a year.
Speaker 1: He was dealing with what a lot of people thought
Speaker 1: was a degenerative knee issue. He was dealing with you know,
Speaker 1: Popovich and a lot of his teammates saying he was
Speaker 1: a bad leader in the public, that that that uh
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard situation was a much worse situation than the
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis situation. It was a much bigger risk than
Speaker 1: the the Anthony Davis trade, and Toronto pulled the trigger anyway.
Speaker 1: And I mean now in retrospect we can parse out
Speaker 1: whether or not san Antonio got hosed in that deal,
Speaker 1: and I think we can all agree that they definitely did.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is they could have lost Kawhi
Speaker 1: Leonard for nothing the following summer. Kawhi Leonard could have
Speaker 1: come in and gotten hurt again. Kawhi Leonard could have
Speaker 1: come in and been like, Hey, my knees still messed up.
Speaker 1: I think I'm just gonna sit out for the entire
Speaker 1: season and then blame it on an injury. Or he
Speaker 1: could have been healthy and just pulled the straight up
Speaker 1: boycott like he threatened to at one point in the media.
Speaker 1: I can't remember whether it was his uncle or his agent,
Speaker 1: but he basically privately threatened, Hey, if you don't trade
Speaker 1: me to l A, I might sit out this season.
Speaker 1: So the point being is Toronto took a big risk
Speaker 1: in going after Kawhi Leonard and it paid off and
Speaker 1: then winning an NBA championship. So your last two NBA
Speaker 1: champions are teams that took significant risks and it ended
Speaker 1: up paying off in them winning a title. Now that
Speaker 1: also comes with another side of the coin that means
Speaker 1: you can very well trade for that guy and it
Speaker 1: might not work out. But my question for you if
Speaker 1: you're in that fringe contender list and the and the
Speaker 1: list that I've it out today was Denver, you know,
Speaker 1: Toronto Philly. Teams like that that are you know, they're
Speaker 1: really really good, but they're not good enough to beat
Speaker 1: the Lakers. They're not good enough to beat you know,
Speaker 1: the other top tier teams around the league. The reality
Speaker 1: is is you're probably gonna lose with whoever your core
Speaker 1: is right now anyway. So you have to ask yourself,
Speaker 1: would I'd rather lose by pushing all my chips into
Speaker 1: the middle and taking a legitimate, you know, potential path
Speaker 1: to a title that may may go off the rails,
Speaker 1: but maybe it doesn't. Maybe we get to hoist the trophy.
Speaker 1: Or do you stick with the status quo with the
Speaker 1: team that you know isn't enough to beat the more
Speaker 1: talented teams in the league, but you know, maintain your
Speaker 1: culture all those things that you keep telling yourself as
Speaker 1: the reason why you won't go after James Harden and
Speaker 1: so from that same point, Like if I was one
Speaker 1: of those French contenders, if I was one of those
Speaker 1: teams that had a lot of talent and you know
Speaker 1: it wasn't really going anywhere these last few years, I
Speaker 1: would be I would be more. I would be looking
Speaker 1: really really hard at what I have and whether or
Speaker 1: not this is feasible, And I would throw something at
Speaker 1: James Harden because he's locked up under contract for like
Speaker 1: I said, probably three years. If you look at that
Speaker 1: massive I think it's almost fifty million dollars he's gonna
Speaker 1: get paid in that third year. I'm guessing he's gonna
Speaker 1: take that option. So the reality is, you could lock
Speaker 1: up James Harden long term and give yourself a legitimate
Speaker 1: chance to win a title, and if it goes poorly,
Speaker 1: if he comes in and tries to ruin your culture,
Speaker 1: you get to trade him again. You can trade him
Speaker 1: again after this season. He's gonna have just as much
Speaker 1: value with one year left on his deal as he
Speaker 1: does with two two years left on his deal. Somebody's
Speaker 1: gonna want him. I think it's I think it's a
Speaker 1: risk that somebody out there needs to take. M HM.
Speaker 1: And the reality is, like I said, You're not winning
Speaker 1: the title unless you take some kind of risk. So
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, whether it's Denver trying to throw
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray, because like if you swap Jamal Murray for
Speaker 1: for James Harden and you know, give up Michael Porter Jr. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're giving up some young talent. You know, Jamal Murray.
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray is is a is a star level player
Speaker 1: who is locked up under contract. It's kind of thing
Speaker 1: that Houston has been asking for. You give up some
Speaker 1: draft picks, You give up Michael Porter Jr. Sounds like
Speaker 1: a lot. But now I've got your kitchen Harden on
Speaker 1: the same team. Now I've got two of the most versatile, skilled,
Speaker 1: uh you know, offensive creators in the league on the
Speaker 1: same team. That's something that's something that I can build around.
Speaker 1: That's something that has a legitimate chance to win a title.
Speaker 1: You know, But it's a risk. You could potentially ruin
Speaker 1: your culture, you could potentially set yourself up for failure.
Speaker 1: But the the truth of the matter is, ask yourself,
Speaker 1: if you're a Nuggets fan, am I winning a title?
Speaker 1: Whichamal Murray and Nicola Yokich And the answer is probably
Speaker 1: not unless there's catastrophic injuries to several teams in the league.
Speaker 1: So those are the kinds of risk that I'm talking
Speaker 1: about that I think teams need to at least look
Speaker 1: at as it pertains to James Harden. Alrighty, we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk about Kyrie here in a second. So, um, Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving came out a couple days ago release the statement
Speaker 1: basically said, you know, because of this incident recently where
Speaker 1: I feel like the media has been twisting my words,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be releasing a statement to convey, you know,
Speaker 1: my thoughts on this season. And it was very you know,
Speaker 1: like uh even kosher and very safe, very safe statement.
Speaker 1: Then that same day, Brian Windhorse comes out and says,
Speaker 1: Kyrie has made it clear that he's not talking to
Speaker 1: the media this year. And as is usually the case,
Speaker 1: Kyrie kind of reminds me a little bit of LaVar Ball.
Speaker 1: Not the same kind of guy. They're totally different stories,
Speaker 1: but it's a similar dynamic in terms of the intellectual
Speaker 1: conversation surrounding the two guys in that they have undisputed success.
Speaker 1: LaVar Ball has put three kids in the NBA. One
Speaker 1: of them, we'll see if he actually makes the opening
Speaker 1: day roster. But he's put three kids in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Three kids have signed NBA contracts. Like that's undeniable success
Speaker 1: his brand, I'm not I'm not sure how big baller
Speaker 1: brands doing anymore, but I'm sure he's made a great
Speaker 1: deal of money. LaVar Ball is a success story, and
Speaker 1: a lot of times that is you used to cover
Speaker 1: up the fact that he's done a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that I don't think is okay morally. I think he's,
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's There's been some examples of misogyny.
Speaker 1: There's been some examples of I, in my opinion, taking
Speaker 1: you know, the spotlight off of his children in a
Speaker 1: way that I didn't think was uh necessarily the right
Speaker 1: thing to do. But the truth of the matter is,
Speaker 1: like I wish people were more honest and when they
Speaker 1: were talking about LaVar Ball to cover both sides. Yes,
Speaker 1: he was a success story, he also did some stuff
Speaker 1: that I think isn't right. I think that should be
Speaker 1: the way that we discussed this stuff. Kyrie kind of
Speaker 1: falls into that same boat. He's an undisputed success story.
Speaker 1: He's got a Nike shoe deal. As Lebron was saying
Speaker 1: in that road trip in podcast. A Nike shoe deal
Speaker 1: is nothing to slout chat. It's an extremely uncommon thing
Speaker 1: that Nike gives out. Not only does he have a
Speaker 1: Nike shoe deal, his shoe deal is doing. It's his
Speaker 1: shoes performing extremely well. Kyriees are one of the most
Speaker 1: popular basketball shoes out there. Although funny side story, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, I've never owned a pair of Kyriees. Don't
Speaker 1: have any idea why. It's just just kind of you know,
Speaker 1: by happenstand But anyway, the point is is, you know,
Speaker 1: he's doing very well in that department. He's one of
Speaker 1: the best ball handlers in the history of the league,
Speaker 1: if not the best. He's hit arguably the biggest shot
Speaker 1: in NBA history. Kyrie Irving is an NBA success story,
Speaker 1: but because of his incessant, you know, flapping of the
Speaker 1: gums and not thinking about what he says before he talks.
Speaker 1: On various occasions throughout his career, he's put his foot
Speaker 1: in his mouth and he's done stuff that has made
Speaker 1: him look bad. And in addition to that, he has absolutely,
Speaker 1: flat out, unequivocally been a bad teammate in several instances,
Speaker 1: not always, He's been a good teammate sometimes, but he's
Speaker 1: his you know, his personality is flaky, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of an emotional roller coaster in the respect that on
Speaker 1: any given situation, if he goes into one of his
Speaker 1: you know, moody seasons, like he can pull away from
Speaker 1: the team, he can make questionable comments to the press,
Speaker 1: He can, you know, do things that fracture the chemistry
Speaker 1: and culture of a locker room. That is a fact
Speaker 1: about Kyrie, and it bothers me that with Kyrie we
Speaker 1: can't have that honesty and just focus on the good
Speaker 1: and the bad. You know, I would like to think
Speaker 1: that if if a couple of my friends, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: sat down and had an honest conversation about me, they
Speaker 1: could sit and talk about the things that they like
Speaker 1: about me, and they could sit and talk about the
Speaker 1: things that I do that they disagree with for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: You know that that that's a normal part of human conversation.
Speaker 1: No one's perfect. Everybody brings things to the table that
Speaker 1: are positives. Everybody brings things to the tables that are negative.
Speaker 1: And and the reality is is that Kyrie Irving has
Speaker 1: made some mistakes in his career, and so that's what
Speaker 1: bothers me so much about this most recent saga because
Speaker 1: one of my biggest pet peeves is people who think
Speaker 1: they're above the struggle. The reality is is everybody experiences
Speaker 1: some amount of struggle. It's not equal. Some people experience
Speaker 1: more struggle, some people experience less struggle. Not really going
Speaker 1: to dive into that, but it bothers me when people
Speaker 1: think they're above that in their particular path in life
Speaker 1: that they chose. Being an NBA player is awesome. You
Speaker 1: get lots of money, you get lots of fame, you
Speaker 1: get to literally play a game for a living, you
Speaker 1: get to do all of these things that that that
Speaker 1: seemed like a dream existence for all of us working
Speaker 1: folks out there, or you know, doing a lot less
Speaker 1: fun thing for a limit. But the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is an NBA player's life is not all perfect.
Speaker 1: It comes with downsides. You know. It comes with Ricky
Speaker 1: Rubio getting traded. You know, Uh, he signs a multi
Speaker 1: year deal with Phoenix, wants to settle his family there
Speaker 1: and bam they ship him off to Okay. See who
Speaker 1: bam shifts him off to to Minnesota. That's a negative
Speaker 1: part of the NBA player experience, you know, there's wear
Speaker 1: and tear on your body, There's risk of injury, there's
Speaker 1: you know, most NBA players end up dealing with joint
Speaker 1: problems when they're older. There's a lot of downsides to
Speaker 1: choosing this path in life, and one of them is
Speaker 1: the intricate relationship between the NBA media and the NBA player.
Speaker 1: The reality is is that the m A media is
Speaker 1: part of what makes the n B a a cash cap.
Speaker 1: The reason why the NBA generates so much revenue is
Speaker 1: because of the power of their stars, and their stars
Speaker 1: have a great deal of power because they're marketed so well,
Speaker 1: and they are marketed so well as a combination of
Speaker 1: the media and just their on court performance. But the
Speaker 1: media is part of that experience. And so I'm not
Speaker 1: an expert on the way the player contract works, but
Speaker 1: as far as I know, I'm pretty sure there are
Speaker 1: there's terminology in the contract that requires these players to
Speaker 1: communicate with the media. Why Because the NBA knows that
Speaker 1: they need Kyrie Irving's face in interviews on camera, doing
Speaker 1: these sorts of things to try to be uh, to
Speaker 1: try to expand his profile and make himself a larger
Speaker 1: figure in the NBA landscape. And so from that standpoint,
Speaker 1: it bothers me. The Kyrie Irving thinks he's above that,
Speaker 1: and the reality is as it comes with the downside,
Speaker 1: every single NBA player in the entire league, at least stars,
Speaker 1: have had something they said or something they did covered
Speaker 1: unfairly by the media. It has literally happened to every
Speaker 1: single star. Kyrie is not unique in that regard. He's
Speaker 1: had some recent instances that are not really fair. But
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is that's part of the
Speaker 1: NBA player experience because in the same way that NBA
Speaker 1: players are not perfect, in the same way that Kyra
Speaker 1: Irving has made mistakes in his career, the NBA media
Speaker 1: is not perfect, and they have made mistakes in their careers.
Speaker 1: And while there are some guys in the NBA that
Speaker 1: you know, make dirty plays or or have bad attitudes
Speaker 1: and fracture locker rooms and all the different bad things
Speaker 1: that they can do, it's also possible for a journalist
Speaker 1: who works in the NBA to misrepresent a statement or
Speaker 1: to flat out lie in some cases. But you do
Speaker 1: the same thing that every other NBA player does. When
Speaker 1: that stuff happens, you refute it and you tell them
Speaker 1: why they're wrong, and you defend yourself and then you
Speaker 1: understand that for the most part, nine plus percent of
Speaker 1: the time him when you say stuff, the NBA will
Speaker 1: the NBA media will treat you fairly. That struggle that
Speaker 1: Kyrie has experienced is the same struggle that every other
Speaker 1: NBA star deals with with the NBA media. So that's
Speaker 1: why I don't like in his you know, insistence on
Speaker 1: feeling like he's above that. And so, you know what,
Speaker 1: go ahead, if you want to skip on press conferences,
Speaker 1: if you want to release statements and do it that way,
Speaker 1: that's fine. I just think the NBA is well within
Speaker 1: their rights to you know, find him, to find some
Speaker 1: way to to try to hold him to his player contract.
Speaker 1: It's a similar thing to the James Harden thing. James
Speaker 1: Harden can hold out all he wants, James Harden can
Speaker 1: miss training camp all he wants. The reality is, though,
Speaker 1: per the contract, there's recourse, and I think the teams
Speaker 1: are well within their rights to find them and to
Speaker 1: do whatever it takes to get them to stick to
Speaker 1: their original agreement per the contract. That's just part of
Speaker 1: being a grown up. It's literally part of how a
Speaker 1: life works, and and it just like I said, it's
Speaker 1: just I'm not not cool with him being viewed as
Speaker 1: above that. And you know what's fun is the NBA
Speaker 1: media relationship. There's all of there's always a focus on
Speaker 1: the examples where a player says something and it's misrepresented,
Speaker 1: but we always just forget about the times when the
Speaker 1: NBA media says something through good reporting and then the
Speaker 1: player denies it publicly, and then time ends up showing
Speaker 1: that the original reporting was correct. How many times in
Speaker 1: NBA history have you seen star A requests to trade
Speaker 1: you know, journalists reports it, you know, whoever it is
Speaker 1: that reports it. Star A then immediately goes on a
Speaker 1: social media account denies it, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden we find out it's true or it's abundantly clear
Speaker 1: to all of us who are watching the situation, like, oh,
Speaker 1: these two guys don't like each other. Report comes out,
Speaker 1: these two guys don't like each other. These two guys
Speaker 1: then go on their social media and go, we are brothers,
Speaker 1: we love each other. And the next thing you know,
Speaker 1: they get traded a from each other and they look
Speaker 1: way happier when they're not around each other. So there
Speaker 1: that relationship goes both ways. Players lie, players are dishonest.
Speaker 1: That's just part of that dynamic if if you know,
Speaker 1: the media is always going to be an imperfect system
Speaker 1: and and and no one is immune to that struggle.
Speaker 1: Like I was saying earlier, Alright, we're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: Lebron's podcast with our Jane Shanning on the road trip
Speaker 1: and podcast. Alrighty, so there was all sorts of good
Speaker 1: stuff in that Lebron podcast with r Jane Shanning. That's
Speaker 1: what happens when you get some tequila flowing. And that's
Speaker 1: what happens when you get guys like our Jane Shanning,
Speaker 1: who are you know, very They don't take themselves seriously.
Speaker 1: They're very uh, easy going, relaxed, funny, you know, lighthearted,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. That sort of thing always finds
Speaker 1: a way to get people around them to kind of
Speaker 1: meet them at their level. It's say, it's contagious. I've
Speaker 1: always people are contagious. If we spend time around people
Speaker 1: who are who are condescending and rude and talk a
Speaker 1: bunch of ship, chances are you're gonna like eventually kind
Speaker 1: of delve into that a little bit yourself. Spend time
Speaker 1: around people who are really happy. It will it will
Speaker 1: inevitably rub rub off on you. That's what happens with R.
Speaker 1: Jane Shannon. You get it. You get into a room
Speaker 1: with those guys, and these stars just lighten up. They
Speaker 1: become the funny, free flowing, you know, locker room version
Speaker 1: of themselves, and then all this good stuff comes out,
Speaker 1: and it'll led you a lot of good stuff from
Speaker 1: from Lebron. But I want to start with the Kyrie
Speaker 1: comments because I think it's actually super interesting and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna call Lebron out on a little bit of hypocrisy here,
Speaker 1: because Lebron goes on this long speel where he basically
Speaker 1: says that you know, Kyrie uh made his comments saying
Speaker 1: that Kevin Duran was the first player he played with
Speaker 1: who he trusted to make a last second shot. So
Speaker 1: Lebron says that he wants to find the full transcript
Speaker 1: to find out exactly what he says, and then he
Speaker 1: calls his people and then he finds out that it's
Speaker 1: it is as bad as it sounds, and then he go, damn,
Speaker 1: I was really upset. It hurt me a little bit.
Speaker 1: I can't believe that, you know all I did was
Speaker 1: trying to help Kyrie and lift him up and and
Speaker 1: this is the way he's treating me now. And then
Speaker 1: later on in the same podcast, he basically did the
Speaker 1: same thing to Janice. And I know they're not teammates,
Speaker 1: but the point is is like it's it was a
Speaker 1: little bit hypocrisy in my opinion. So Janice just got
Speaker 1: done an interview in Greece where he's saying Lebron's praises
Speaker 1: like we've never seen, calling him the best player in
Speaker 1: the world, calling him the player he'd most likely would
Speaker 1: want to win m v P if he didn't win it.
Speaker 1: A guy he roots for, a guy he looks up to,
Speaker 1: a guy he looked up to a lot when he
Speaker 1: was younger. Janice just absolutely just showered Lebron with love
Speaker 1: in that interview with Greece, and then in his podcast
Speaker 1: with r J and Shanning, he goes out of his
Speaker 1: way to basically defend Shanning fry By for saying that
Speaker 1: Janice can't score, and in the reality is just like
Speaker 1: I agree, honest can't score, at least in the context
Speaker 1: of what Channing was trying to say, which is which
Speaker 1: is playoff half court scoring, which is extremely difficult, and
Speaker 1: Janice definitely has a weakness there. But the point is
Speaker 1: is Lebron went public with the fact that he believes
Speaker 1: that you're honest can't score or at least he understands
Speaker 1: what Channing was trying to say when he was saying that.
Speaker 1: So my point is is, like, you can't really necessarily
Speaker 1: get mad at Kyrie for saying something that bothered you,
Speaker 1: uh you know, that you thought was disrespectful and inaccurate,
Speaker 1: and then you kind of turn around and go do
Speaker 1: the same thing to be honest. You know that that
Speaker 1: that's the hypocrisy in that regard. But again that's like,
Speaker 1: that's that's part of that uh NBA media relationship. Players
Speaker 1: make mistakes too, you know, Like Lebron is the kind
Speaker 1: of guy he says, I found it uninterrupted to make
Speaker 1: sure that my words don't get you know, parsed out
Speaker 1: and and taken out of context and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: But the truth is is, like Lebron, sometimes you contradict
Speaker 1: yourself to That's part of the game. No one's perfect,
Speaker 1: but like it goes, it goes both ways. That's part
Speaker 1: of that relationship. You know, you're not perfect, you know,
Speaker 1: Dave McManaman is not perfect. Brian win Horse is not perfect.
Speaker 1: Adrian mor Zanowski is not perfect. Those guys are gonna
Speaker 1: make mistakes. That part of that relationship. You guys all
Speaker 1: need each other, the players in the media need each
Speaker 1: other for the league to succeed, Alright. So the last one,
Speaker 1: there's obviously so much to talk about from that podcast,
Speaker 1: But the last one I really want to touch on
Speaker 1: is this Katie and Steph thing. So r J basically
Speaker 1: brings up the Katie Lebron relationship, the fact that there's
Speaker 1: a lot of mutual respect there and the fact that
Speaker 1: the two of them, you know, push each other in
Speaker 1: a similar way to the way that Magic and Larry
Speaker 1: Bird pushed each other. Now, this isn't the first time
Speaker 1: we've seen this brought up. This was originally brought up
Speaker 1: by Lebron and Kadie themselves, I believe in the fall
Speaker 1: of two thousand seventeen. No, it was All Star Break
Speaker 1: two thousand. In that two thousand seventeen two thousand and
Speaker 1: eighteen seasons, so Kevin Durant had just won his first
Speaker 1: title with the Warriors, and in All Star Break, Lebron
Speaker 1: and Kevin Durant went on a taxi ride with Carrie Champion,
Speaker 1: and in this taxi ride, Lebron and Katie basically we're
Speaker 1: talking with each other and carry Champion about the fact
Speaker 1: that they viewed themselves. This is the two best players
Speaker 1: in the league in a tier by themselves. Now, part
Speaker 1: of this, I think is, you know, positional similarities. You know,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Katie are both small forwards. Lebron and Katie
Speaker 1: are both like, you know, versatile basketball players. Lebron and
Speaker 1: Katie are have faced off in the finals at that
Speaker 1: point twice. There's a lot of mutual respect there. But
Speaker 1: the truth of the matter is, and this is something
Speaker 1: that has bothered me for a long time about the
Speaker 1: about the Katie moved to Golden State, is that Katie's
Speaker 1: claim to that tier with Lebron is flawed and there's
Speaker 1: actually a player that has a much better case to
Speaker 1: be in that tier, and that's Steph Curry. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a tweet that I sent out a long time
Speaker 1: ago that kind of encapsulated this. But you know, in
Speaker 1: two thousand, fifteen and sixteen, there were two players who
Speaker 1: were clearly better than everyone else in the league. It
Speaker 1: was Lebron and Steph Curry, and they were both on
Speaker 1: teams that were, you know, reasonably similar levels of talent.
Speaker 1: The Golden State I thought I had a little more
Speaker 1: talent in that two thousand and sixteen years just because
Speaker 1: Kevin Kevin Love wasn't playing super well. But Kevin Durand
Speaker 1: also had a very good team in that year. Him
Speaker 1: and Russell Westbrook was peaking as an athlete and Uh
Speaker 1: entering his mental prime as well. And Sergebaka was on
Speaker 1: that team as a shot blocker. Stephen Steven Adams was
Speaker 1: on that team. There's a lot of athleticism, and they
Speaker 1: really overwhelmed Golden State, and they're athletically and defensively in
Speaker 1: the two thousand sixteen Western Conference Finals. But the point
Speaker 1: is is that all three of those guys, Lebron, Stephen,
Speaker 1: k D, We're on the similar level, with similar level teams,
Speaker 1: pursuing the similar goal. And there was a clear result.
Speaker 1: Steph beat k D and then Lebron beat Steph. The
Speaker 1: hierarchy was very clear. You know, Lebron is clearly the
Speaker 1: best player in the league. Staff is right there behind him,
Speaker 1: and Katie is right there behind Steph. But then KD
Speaker 1: decides to leave the thunder and go to Golden State,
Speaker 1: which inevitably led to success. You know, there there was
Speaker 1: oh conceivable method for that team to lose. With the
Speaker 1: amount of talent that they had and with how boughten
Speaker 1: they were to start that season. They absolutely obliterated everybody
Speaker 1: they played all season long. And yet, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: after that season, we landed at Kevin Durant and Lebron
Speaker 1: at the top tier of the league. We landed at
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant outplayed Lebron in the two thousand seventeen finals.
Speaker 1: We landed at this concept that Kevin Durant had somehow
Speaker 1: leap frogged possibly both, if not just Steth to that
Speaker 1: top tier of the league. And to me, that was
Speaker 1: always illogical. It didn't make any sense to me to
Speaker 1: begin with. You know, my favorite example is just the
Speaker 1: efficiency numbers that you look at. Kevin Durant is frequently
Speaker 1: called the greatest scorer in NBA history by a lot
Speaker 1: of people, not something I agree with. I think that
Speaker 1: guy's MJ. But you know, he's a guy who gets
Speaker 1: a lot of credit as a score. But you look
Speaker 1: at two thousand sixteen, Kevin Duran's sufficiency was tanking. Why
Speaker 1: because he was the focus of the defense. Anytime Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant was dribbling with the basketball, they're running around off
Speaker 1: the basketball. The defense was keyed around stopping Kevin Durant,
Speaker 1: and it led to his efficiency tanking. When he went
Speaker 1: to go play with Steph, every team strategically, you know,
Speaker 1: directed their defense towards stopping Steph, and it left k
Speaker 1: D in single coverage almost every single time he had
Speaker 1: the basketball, and as a result, his efficiency went way
Speaker 1: way up from not mistaken he went it was something,
Speaker 1: it was over double digits. He went up like sixteen
Speaker 1: and affected field goal percentage from two thousand and sixteen
Speaker 1: two seventeen in the playoffs. There's some absurd number like that.
Speaker 1: That is the natural progression of things when you go
Speaker 1: from playing with a traditional contender to joining a team
Speaker 1: that is already a traditional contender as the third or
Speaker 1: fourth best player in the league or whatever you think
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant was at that point, and it always it's
Speaker 1: been one of the most confusing things that I've seen
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, honest basketball discourse. In the
Speaker 1: last decade, Steph earned the right to be the guy
Speaker 1: who's measured against Lebron Steph earned that right for a
Speaker 1: long time, for several years with flawed rosters, with teams
Speaker 1: that weren't your traditional drug or not contender. There. There,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Steph Curry are the only two players that
Speaker 1: belong in that conversation. Kevin Durant might belong in that conversation,
Speaker 1: but it's based on you know, subjectivity or whatever your
Speaker 1: aesthetic thing is that you love about Kevin Durant. None
Speaker 1: of it ever really made sense, you know, logically, none
Speaker 1: of it ever really made sense in the results and
Speaker 1: the stuff that we were actually seeing on the court.
Speaker 1: And so I feel I feel bad for step in
Speaker 1: that regard, and honestly, like I'm confused by Lebron's methodology there,
Speaker 1: because if your case is that you know you're better
Speaker 1: than Steph or that if your case is that the
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen Finals is the greatest accomplishment in NBA history,
Speaker 1: and if your case is that you know you lost
Speaker 1: because Kevin Durant joined that team, then your case needs
Speaker 1: to be that Steph Curry is that guy your Steph.
Speaker 1: Your case needs to be that Steph Curry is the
Speaker 1: guy who is at your level because it lifts up
Speaker 1: your accomplishment in two thousand and sixteen. It doesn't make
Speaker 1: sense to marginalize Steph because it takes some of the
Speaker 1: gloss off of your accomplishment in that two thousand sixteen
Speaker 1: finals come back with the Cavs, in two with the Cavs,
Speaker 1: and in that three one come back. I I just
Speaker 1: don't understand the methodology of it. If I was a UH,
Speaker 1: if I was Lebron, I would be talking all about
Speaker 1: how great stuff is, because that's the guy that is
Speaker 1: your pathway to, you know, solidifying your hold on the
Speaker 1: goat debate. You know, I I played Steph Curry. It
Speaker 1: was a bona fide top ten player all time, at
Speaker 1: the absolute peak of his powers in an under an
Speaker 1: undisputed m v P season, and I beat him. That's
Speaker 1: the guy that you need to to to UH to
Speaker 1: cling to. And I, you know, I went at length
Speaker 1: in the in My Player Hierarchy pot a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago about why I think k D is behind
Speaker 1: Stepp and it all just stems from the similar stuff
Speaker 1: that I've talked about, you know, with aesthetics being overvalued.
Speaker 1: You know, Kevin Durant makes it look so easy when
Speaker 1: he scores that people ignore the results, which are that
Speaker 1: every season that Kevin Durant played away from Step, you know,
Speaker 1: he was less efficient and when push came to shove
Speaker 1: in late round playoff series, he couldn't get in. He
Speaker 1: couldn't do enough to get his team over the top,
Speaker 1: even though he spent his entire career playing with perennial
Speaker 1: MVP candidates. And you know it's from that same point
Speaker 1: I've never really I've never really understood, you know, why
Speaker 1: a guy who has bona fide results based evidence that
Speaker 1: he is better than k D and Step, and why
Speaker 1: that always gets put on the back burner. Alrighty, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look real quick at our questions that we have.
Speaker 1: I wrote a few of them down that I want
Speaker 1: to respond to when I would see if any new
Speaker 1: ones popped up. And we have one from the uh
Speaker 1: the live comments here. Do you think Harden gets dealt
Speaker 1: before the season starts? I do. My guess is that
Speaker 1: he ends up in Philly. Um that's where my That's
Speaker 1: what my gut tells me. I think the trade makes
Speaker 1: you know, I think the trade it makes absolute sense.
Speaker 1: I think Darryl Moorey is a really smart guy. I
Speaker 1: think Daryl Morey is cutthroat. I don't think Darryl Moorey
Speaker 1: is scared to hurt any feelings. And I know Darryl Moorey,
Speaker 1: deep in his heart of hearts, knows damn well that
Speaker 1: James Harden is a much much better basketball player than
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons. I like Ben Simmons. He's good players probably
Speaker 1: like I probably haven't around sixteen or seventeen in the league.
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is, you know, James
Speaker 1: Harden is a bona fide top ten player who is
Speaker 1: has famously in his career always stayed healthy. He is
Speaker 1: he's like, you know, a little bit of a uh,
Speaker 1: you know, an iron man in that regard. It's in
Speaker 1: And it's also a much better complimentary piece with Joel
Speaker 1: embiat you know, instead of having two players that operate
Speaker 1: in the paint who caused major problems for spacing, why
Speaker 1: not swap one of those spacing concerns for a player
Speaker 1: like James Harden, who's a you know, bona fide clear
Speaker 1: uh fit with Joel embiid and it just makes a
Speaker 1: lot more sense. And so I think I think you'll
Speaker 1: end up seeing I think uh uh if I think
Speaker 1: if Philly was patient, they could get James Harden for
Speaker 1: just Ben Simmons. I just think that I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer in continuity. I'm a big believer in training camp mattering.
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in, you know, getting lots and
Speaker 1: lots of reps with your guys so that when they
Speaker 1: get to the postseason they know how to play together.
Speaker 1: I think the smart tactical move is, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: go after James Harden, go after him now, even if
Speaker 1: you have to overpay a little bit, because you're better
Speaker 1: off getting a veteran minimum. You know, uh, buyout guy
Speaker 1: to fill out whatever other pieces you have to lose,
Speaker 1: and and give James Harden and and and Joel Embiad
Speaker 1: as many reps as possible to learn how to play together.
Speaker 1: And I'm also a big believer in James Harden as
Speaker 1: a winner. If you surround him with all the guys
Speaker 1: you can make up for his shortcomings. If you put
Speaker 1: James Harden around a really, really good defensive team, if
Speaker 1: you put James Harden around an alpha who can go
Speaker 1: toe to toe with other stars, which I really believe
Speaker 1: joe El Embiad is just like CP three was and
Speaker 1: if you give him enough shooting, I think James Harden
Speaker 1: can succeed Joel embiad is that alpha you know, uh,
Speaker 1: if they if they surround you know, Matisse Thyble and
Speaker 1: with Joel Embiide, you could that's the Tobias Harris, that's
Speaker 1: the core of a good NBA defense. If you get
Speaker 1: James Harden to buying in that regard, and as long
Speaker 1: as Seth Curry, you know, remains a serviceable defensive player,
Speaker 1: you could have a team there with pretty good spacing
Speaker 1: because Tobias can shoot. Because Seth Curry can shoot you,
Speaker 1: and you have the good like Yin and Yang with
Speaker 1: with embiating Harden, that makes sense. And then you've got
Speaker 1: em beats alpha mentality to make up for when Harden
Speaker 1: can kind of fade later in postseason games as he
Speaker 1: has a tendency to well the league find hardened for
Speaker 1: his behavior. Are they're even able to so? From what
Speaker 1: I understand, and again I'm not an expert in this stuff,
Speaker 1: From what I understand, this falls to the team, So
Speaker 1: the league, uh doesn't necessarily have recourse here. However, the
Speaker 1: player contract with the team gives the team the ability
Speaker 1: to find a player for not showing up to practice,
Speaker 1: or to suspend a player for not showing up to practice.
Speaker 1: But there's another side of that coin. M and I
Speaker 1: believe it was Zach Low that talked about this in
Speaker 1: his pot the other day. There is a fear that
Speaker 1: exists between you know, teams and the agent pool that
Speaker 1: if you punish a star player for misconduct, it might
Speaker 1: scare other stars away. And I heard that today when
Speaker 1: I was actually today when I was listening to the pod,
Speaker 1: and I actually I kind of disagree with that ideology.
Speaker 1: You know, I would feel confident if I was a
Speaker 1: general manager and I had to find James Harden for
Speaker 1: not showing up to practice, I would feel confident that
Speaker 1: in a free agent class in the future that if
Speaker 1: I had, you know, Bradley Beale sit down at a
Speaker 1: table with me and he's like, all right, tell me
Speaker 1: why I should come to Houston. You know what the
Speaker 1: heck happened when you find James Harden. I look Bradley
Speaker 1: in the face and I'd say, look, man, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to run a tight ship here. You know, I am
Speaker 1: a leaver that you know in this organization, we have accountability.
Speaker 1: And it's my opinion that by setting that culture, it
Speaker 1: makes our team better, you know, by showing that no
Speaker 1: one is immune to to you know, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: disobeying the rules of our team. I I'm setting a
Speaker 1: culture that will lead to good things for the team
Speaker 1: in the future. And you know what, if Bradley Beal
Speaker 1: looks back at me in that situation and he goes like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be a part of something like
Speaker 1: that where you're not going to have my back, then
Speaker 1: you know, maybe that's not the kind of star that
Speaker 1: I want. The truth of the matter is is that
Speaker 1: this is a guy who is blatantly violating his player contract.
Speaker 1: In any sort of punishment that you lever levy on
Speaker 1: him is not a sign of weakness in my in
Speaker 1: my opinion, it's a sign of strength. And the kind
Speaker 1: of guys you're gonna turn away who might be offended
Speaker 1: by that aren't the kind of guys that I want
Speaker 1: to be in my organization anyway. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: you have to make some big public thing. Maybe it's private,
Speaker 1: but you you you you punish James Harden for obeying
Speaker 1: his player contract, you know why, so that if the
Speaker 1: tenth man on the bench, you know, sleeps in in
Speaker 1: in skips practice some day during the season, and you
Speaker 1: have to find him. You don't have him like sulking
Speaker 1: in the corner and or going to the press or
Speaker 1: doing something to complain about how he doesn't obey. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have to, uh, you know, follow the same rules
Speaker 1: that James Harden does, and that that's the tightrope that
Speaker 1: you walk when you start giving special treatment to players.
Speaker 1: All right, let's look at what other questions we have here.
Speaker 1: How excited are you to see Lebron play more off
Speaker 1: the ball this season with Dennis and Gasol being able
Speaker 1: to initiate the offense. So I talked about this a
Speaker 1: lot with the Clippers last year. I hope that things
Speaker 1: still stay with Lebron on ball as much as possible.
Speaker 1: And the reason for that is is that I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in rhythm and flow, and I'm a big
Speaker 1: believer that you know, with exception of fatigue related uh,
Speaker 1: you know, his civity, you need to keep the ball
Speaker 1: in the hands of your best players as much as
Speaker 1: you can. You know, when Lebron is on the bench,
Speaker 1: when Lebron is on the court and resting, you know,
Speaker 1: as he likes to do especially when he, you know,
Speaker 1: starts to step up his minutes. I'm a big believer that,
Speaker 1: you know, you want to put the ball in someone
Speaker 1: else's hands because he can, because Lebron can spot up, shoot,
Speaker 1: because Lebron can cut, because Lebron can do the stuff
Speaker 1: off the ball. But when Lebron is feeling good, and
Speaker 1: when Lebron's on the court, you need to run the run,
Speaker 1: run the offense through him as much as possible because
Speaker 1: he's the second or first or second best player ever
Speaker 1: and he's the best player in the world, and you're
Speaker 1: you're doing your team at disservice if you don't have
Speaker 1: him be aggressive, you know. So, I'm excited for what
Speaker 1: Dennis can do in the second unit. I'm excited for
Speaker 1: what Marc Gasol can do as a high i Q
Speaker 1: off ball player. But the truth of the matter is
Speaker 1: is that, you know, uh, those guys don't need to
Speaker 1: be taking your too many of the touches away from
Speaker 1: Lebron and Anthony Davis. They need to they need to
Speaker 1: remain aggressive. Of the teams that made a eeper playoff
Speaker 1: run in the bubble, do you think there's any team
Speaker 1: that may have actually benefited from the short turnaround, So
Speaker 1: the one to look at for me would be Boston. Um.
Speaker 1: The reason why is because Kemba is gonna be sitting
Speaker 1: out anyway with the stem cell injection that he got
Speaker 1: in his kneecap. So from that standpoint, like your only
Speaker 1: real veteran player on the roster is resting. Your other
Speaker 1: old guy on the roster, Gordon Hayward has been shipped
Speaker 1: off UM and Tristan Thompson, the guy you brought into
Speaker 1: play center is has had a ton of time off,
Speaker 1: and uh Jeff Teague has also had a ton of
Speaker 1: time off. So you're starting lineup fatigue. Marcus Smart, Jason
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, and and uh M Jalen Brown and Tristan
Speaker 1: Thompson are all either young guys who are capable of
Speaker 1: having a quick turnaround because of their youth, or guys
Speaker 1: who have had a lot of time off. So Boston
Speaker 1: is a team that I think has a good chance
Speaker 1: to come in and attack the season early on and
Speaker 1: have a lot of success early that the teams that
Speaker 1: are gonna struggle early are going to be your older
Speaker 1: veteran teams that take distance from basketball in the short break.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of teams You've heard a lot
Speaker 1: of talk from Clippers players, Lakers players. I've heard it
Speaker 1: from a lot of like veteran players that you know,
Speaker 1: they stopped stribbling a basketball and just for their own
Speaker 1: mental health, just got away from the game over these
Speaker 1: last two months. And I think those guys are smart
Speaker 1: to have done that, and I think that those uh,
Speaker 1: it will hurt them in the short term. They're gonna
Speaker 1: see teams like that suffer some early season losses to
Speaker 1: more zealous teams, to more you know, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: to hire effort teams, younger teams early in the season,
Speaker 1: but it will benefit them in the long run. And
Speaker 1: then teams that like Boston who have young talent and
Speaker 1: influx of newer players that haven't been dealing with the
Speaker 1: bubble turnaround, those are the teams that are going to
Speaker 1: have some success early in the season and jump to
Speaker 1: the top of the standings. Don't be surprised if Boston
Speaker 1: is the one seed, you know, a ten fifteen games
Speaker 1: through the season. All right, see what else we got?
Speaker 1: All Right, this is the last one I'm gonna do.
Speaker 1: Dark Horse m VP candidate and dark Horse Championship contender.
Speaker 1: So I haven't dug too much into my m VP stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be doing that on Friday, so I'm gonna
Speaker 1: leave that one. But I really do think that Philly
Speaker 1: is an interesting dark horse championship contender. The idea there
Speaker 1: is if they make a trade for James Harden. And
Speaker 1: I know I'm down on James Harden, but I do
Speaker 1: believe that there is an opportunity in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: because of the lack of high end talent. You know,
Speaker 1: there is high end talent there now with the influx
Speaker 1: of Kevin Durant and and James Harden in this theoretical
Speaker 1: situation where he gets traded to Philly, but the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference is being duked out by Jimmy Butler, Jana Santana Coombo,
Speaker 1: Jayson Tatum, really flawed stars, stars that you know. Joanna
Speaker 1: Santana Coopo, I think is the sixth best player in
Speaker 1: the league, but he has some big holes in his
Speaker 1: game that make him a less you know, imposing playoff player.
Speaker 1: And then Jimmy Butler is kind of the opposite of that.
Speaker 1: He's not that talented of a player, but he has
Speaker 1: so much playoffics variants that he brings a lot to
Speaker 1: the table in that regard. So from that standpoint, you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's an opening in the East for an alpha
Speaker 1: type personality to step in and have a lot of success.
Speaker 1: There's an opening in the East for someone to do
Speaker 1: what Lebron did in two thousand eighteen, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I have my doubts about Brooklyn strictly stemming from
Speaker 1: Katie's health, Kyrie's health, the weird personality mix in that
Speaker 1: locker room, the lack of guys who do dirty work,
Speaker 1: the lack of your traditional championship level role players, and
Speaker 1: that roster. Philly's already got all of that seth Curry
Speaker 1: is an awesome to guard, one of the highest percentage
Speaker 1: three point shooters in the league, a really really solid
Speaker 1: role player to put along to two stars. Tobias Harris.
Speaker 1: Is massively overpaid, but he's a really good player. He's
Speaker 1: massively overpaid, but when he's your third best guy, that
Speaker 1: kind of works. And then Joel Embiid and any given
Speaker 1: night can be the best player in the world. And
Speaker 1: so James Harden is kind of in the perfect situation
Speaker 1: there to vault a flawed team that's the middle of
Speaker 1: the pack. Eastern conference team into a team that could
Speaker 1: just as easily win that conference. James Harden can go
Speaker 1: toe to toe with any of those other stars in
Speaker 1: that conference except for maybe k D and can beat
Speaker 1: them and his The supporting cast around James Harden in
Speaker 1: Philly under those circumstances is better than the supporting cast
Speaker 1: that Kevin Durant would have in Brooklyn. And I think
Speaker 1: if it pushed came to shove and you had a
Speaker 1: Philly Brooklyn Conference final or a Philly Brooklyn showdown, that
Speaker 1: would lead to the team that would inevitably win the East.
Speaker 1: I think James Harden can come out of top of
Speaker 1: that matchup. Then in the NBA Finals, anything can happen.
Speaker 1: It's about injuries, it's about fatigue. It's a war of attrition.
Speaker 1: You know, look at last year with UH. You know,
Speaker 1: Miami brings it to one and if you guys remember
Speaker 1: UH in the I think it was in the close
Speaker 1: out game and when it was three one, but Anthony Davis,
Speaker 1: you know, looked there for a second, can might to
Speaker 1: towards Achilles. Now he didn't. He was fine in the
Speaker 1: in the in the Lakers one. But the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is like something like that happens, and you know,
Speaker 1: I think Lebron still would beat Miami, but who knows,
Speaker 1: anything could happen. An injury like that could swing things,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of times injuries happened in
Speaker 1: previous rounds and then they drag on and then fatigue
Speaker 1: can play a role. So if you're James Harden and
Speaker 1: you can get to if you can get to Philly
Speaker 1: and that amazing supporting cast there in Philly, all it
Speaker 1: is you gotta knock out Kevin Durant. If you do,
Speaker 1: you've got the best team. You're gonna get it to
Speaker 1: the You're gonna get to the finals. And then who knows,
Speaker 1: you know, the two l E teams beat the ship
Speaker 1: out of each other. Lebron's fatigue, Lebron's hurt. Who knows
Speaker 1: what the deal is there, but there's an opportunity there.
Speaker 1: And so my dark horse Championship contender is Philly under
Speaker 1: the circumstance where they can trade for James Harden. Alrighty,
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today, guys. Like I said, Friday,
Speaker 1: eleven am Pacific Standard time, we're gonna be doing the
Speaker 1: season preview with Tommy. Um. I know a lot of
Speaker 1: you guys get annoyed because he can be an anti
Speaker 1: Lebron guys sometimes. But first of all, like we're all fans,
Speaker 1: we're all biased, we all have our issues. If you
Speaker 1: have a you know, Tommy is just a guy like
Speaker 1: you guys. He just feels differently. And most importantly, it
Speaker 1: makes for fun discussion. I'm a pro Lebron guy, so
Speaker 1: it leads to more debate. It's no fun to just
Speaker 1: have someone come on here and agree with me on everything.
Speaker 1: And most importantly, it's not that serious. It's bad. It's
Speaker 1: not that serious. It's basketball discussion. And so Tommy's gonna
Speaker 1: come on, We're gonna disagree on some stuff. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be fun. If if Tommy says something that is unfair
Speaker 1: and that you disagree with, chances are I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: there to advocate for whatever your side of of that
Speaker 1: debate is. So it should be fun. Like I said
Speaker 1: Friday eleven am, thanks again as always for you guys
Speaker 1: to support I really, really truly appreciate it. If you
Speaker 1: haven't done so yet, you know, subscribe, if you could
Speaker 1: write a review, if you could drop a rating for me,
Speaker 1: it would mean a lot to me. But as usually
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys to support and I'll see you guys
Speaker 1: on Friday.